Classical pianist Emanuel Ax returns to grace the Music Hall stage with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for its Friday and Saturday, September 26-27 concerts, featuring the exquisite Chopin Concerto No. 2.
A favorite of Cincinnati audiences, Emanuel Ax has grown in esteem since he first entered the public eye 40 years ago after winning the first Arthur Rubenstein International Piano Competition in 1974. He has worked with legendary artists such as Itzhak Perlman, and has won several Grammy Awards, both for his solo recordings and for his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma.
Music Director Louis Langrée will lead the orchestra in a program that also includes Debussy’s highly popular impressionistic La Mer, known for its sublime depiction of the sea. Also on the program is Ravel’s Une barque sur l’océan (“A Boat on the Ocean”) and Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture.
All ticketholders are invited to attend Classical Conversations, beginning one hour prior to these performances in the Music Hall auditorium. Get inside the hearts and minds of the composers and guest artists with these informative discussions. Guest pianist Emanuel Ax joins CSO Assistant Conductor William White this week.
Tickets for this concert start at just $12 and are available by calling the CSO Box Office at (513) 381-3300 or visiting www.cincinnatisymphony.org.
The CSO is grateful to Masterworks Series Sponsor US Bank, and Concert Sponsor Messer Construction. The ArtsWave partner for this performance is Macy’s.
Emanuel Ax, pianist
Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at the Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. Additionally, he attended Columbia University where he majored in French. Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists followed four years later by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.
Two major projects are planned for the second half of the upcoming 2014-15 season, the first being a two week “Celebrate the Piano” festival with the Toronto Symphony curated by Mr. Ax that will present performances by multiple pianists, including Mr. Ax, exploring the many facets of the piano. The second will be a European tour with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin beginning with a joint appearance in Carnegie Hall. Throughout the season he will return to the orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Washington, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Montreal and Ottawa. Recitals will take him to Vancouver, San Francisco and the mid-west ending in Lincoln Center’s Tully Hall where he will also appear in duo with baritone Simon Keenlyside. In Europe he will return to the Berlin Philharmonic followed by a tour to Vienna, Salzburg, Graz and London performing Winterreise with Simon Keenlyside as well as presenting both Brahms Concerti in Amsterdam and Paris with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink. Other European orchestras this season feature the London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich and the National Orchestras of Toulouse and Lyon.
