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Emanuel Ax

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Emanuel Ax
Ax in 2014
Born (1949-06-08) June 8, 1949 (age 75)
Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
NationalityAmerican
OccupationClassical pianist

Emanuel "Manny"[1] Ax (born 8 June 1949) is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is known for his chamber music collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Young Uck Kim, as well as his piano recitals and performances with major orchestras in the world.

Starting at the age of 12, Ax studied piano under Mieczysław Munz of the Juilliard School. He won honorable mention at the VIII International Chopin Piano Competition in 1970, third place at the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in 1971, seventh place at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1972, and first prize in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 1974.

Ax has been a faculty member at the Juilliard School since 1990.[2][3]

Early life

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Ax was born into the Polish-Jewish family of Joachim and Hellen Ax[4] in Lviv, Ukraine, formerly part of the Soviet Union. Both parents were Nazi concentration camp survivors. Ax began to study piano at the age of six; his father was his first piano teacher. When he was seven, the family moved to Warsaw, Poland, where he studied piano the at Miodowa school. Two years later, Ax's family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where he continued to study music, including as a member of The Junior Musical Club of Winnipeg. In 1961, when Ax was 12 years old, the family moved to New York City, and Ax continued his piano studies under Mieczysław Munz of the Juilliard School until 1976, when Munz left New York to teach in Japan. In 1970, Ax received his B.A. in French at Columbia University and became an American citizen. The same year, he won honorable mention at the VIII International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. In 1971, he won third place at the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition.[5] In 1972, he placed 7th at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He caught the public eye when he won the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 1974, where he was personally congratulated by renowned pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who was a judge for the competition. The New York Times reported on Ax's win in 1974 and said that in addition to a prize of $5,000, Ax "will receive the Artur Rubenstein Gold Medal engagements with the Israel Philharmonic and the BBC Orchestra, a recording contract with RCA and an artist‐management contract with Hurok Artists."[5]

In 1975, Ax was named recipient of the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, and in 1979, he was named recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize.[6][7]

Views

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Recalling his competition years, Ax said "You tend to forget how really awful the tension was. Here you were, No. 19, trying to play something better than No. 18. Ridiculous." For Ax, saying which pianist is better is only a subjective judgment at the highest levels, "can anyone really go to piano recital and say Horowitz is better than Rubinstein? The most I can say is that Rubinstein speaks to me with greater voice than this one or that one." Though he admits that competitions are a necessary means toward success for pianists, Ax hopes to never "sit on a jury and eliminate people".[6]

When speaking about performance repertoire, Ax said that one should not perform at a concert with pieces they have only learned recently: "People think pianists are lazy because they play the same works again and again, but it's not that. It's being afraid of something you haven't done in public before. A conductor can do what he does very well whether his hands are cold or his baton is trembling. He can still get what he wants. But if I'm afraid, things will suffer. Physical and mental coordination must be perfect."[6]

Performing career

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Ax has been the main duo recital partner of cellist Yo-Yo Ma since August 3, 1973 when the pair performed its first public recital at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. They have recorded much of the cello/piano repertoire together. Ax also played quartets briefly with Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo. Before the quartet disbanded in 2001 due to the death of Stern, they recorded works for Sony by Brahms, Fauré, Beethoven, Schumann and Mozart. Ax is also a featured guest artist in a documentary film about the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, Five Days in September; the Rebirth of an Orchestra.

In 1997, Ax was the music director of the Ojai Music Festival alongside the conductor Daniel Harding.

He holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale University[8] (awarded in May 2007),[9] Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, and Columbia University.[8] He is a recipient of Yale University's Sanford Medal.[10][11]

In 2012, Ax was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.[7]

Musical style

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Ax is a particular supporter of contemporary composers and has given three world premieres in the last few seasons; Century Rolls by John Adams, Seeing by Christopher Rouse and Red Silk Dance by Bright Sheng. He also performs works by such diverse figures as Michael Tippett, Hans Werner Henze, Joseph Schwantner, Arnold Schoenberg and Paul Hindemith, as well as more traditional composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin.

Personal life

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Ax lives in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki,[12] and has two children.[13] He converses in fluent Polish with his family at home.[14]

Ax co-constructed the April 19, 2017 New York Times Crossword Puzzle and is one of the ambassadors to Music Traveler, together with Billy Joel, Hans Zimmer, John Malkovich, Sean Lennon, and Adrien Brody.

Recordings

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1981:

1984:

1985:

1986:

  • Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Cello and Piano, Vol. 3 (with Yo-Yo Ma)

1988:

1989:

  • Strauss and Britten: Cello Sonatas (with Yo-Yo Ma)

1990:

1991:

  • Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonatas (with Yo-Yo Ma)

1992:

  • Brahms: Cello Sonatas (with Yo-Yo Ma)

1993:

1994:

  • Chopin: Chamber Music (tracks 1-9, with Yo-Yo Ma (tracks 1-9), Pamela Frank (tracks 1-4), and Ewa Osinska (track 10))
  • Beethoven, Schumann: Piano Quartets (with Yo-Yo Ma, Isaac Stern, and Jaime Laredo)

1995:

1996:

1997:

  • Mozart: The Piano Quartets (with Yo-Yo Ma, Isaac Stern, and Jaime Laredo)

1999:

2010:

Awards and recognitions

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Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:[20]

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra):[20]

  • Emanuel Ax for Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Nos. 32, 47, 53, 59 (1995)
  • Emanuel Ax for Haydn: Piano Sonatas Nos. 29, 31, 34, 35 & 49 (2004)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Cotter, Jim (16 February 2015). ""Manny" Ax: A Man For All Eras". www.wrti.org. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  2. ^ "Emanuel Ax". The Juilliard School. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  3. ^ "Emanuel Ax". The Juilliard School. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  4. ^ Kaminski, Bartosz (2001-01-08). "Emanuel Ax: nie miałem talentu do gry na fortepianie" [Emanuel Ax: I had no talent for playing the piano]. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). Archived from the original on May 10, 2011.
  5. ^ a b "New Yorker, 25, Is Israel Piano Winner". The New York Times. Sep 14, 1974. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d Henahan, Donal (Aug 14, 1977). "Emanuel Ax Prefers Concerts to Contests". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  7. ^ a b c "Ax, Emanuel". Classical Music Walk of Fame. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Emanuel Ax performs Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Chopin Feb. 6". Yale School of Music. January 24, 2013. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2015. Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia Universities.
  9. ^ "Yale Honorary Degree Recipients". Yale University. Archived from the original on May 21, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  10. ^ "Tokyo Quartet, Peter Oundjian receive Sanford Medals". Yale School of Music, Yale University. January 23, 2013. Previous recipients of the Sanford Medal include Georg Solti, Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sherrill Milnes, Marilyn Horne, Emanuel Ax, and Richard Stoltzman.
  11. ^ "Emanuel Ax, pianist". Emanuel Ax. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  12. ^ Jean-Pierre Thiollet, 88 notes pour piano solo, « Solo de duo », Neva Editions, 2015, p.98. ISBN 978-2-3505-5192-0
  13. ^ Rowes, Barbara (August 9, 1982). "Hailed as the Next Rubinstein, Emanuel Ax Cuts An Ample Figure in the Classical Music World". People. 18 (6).
  14. ^ "Backstage with Peter Oundjian". YouTube. Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  15. ^ "Emanuel Ax". queenelisabethcompetition.be (in French). Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  16. ^ a b "Ax, Emanuel". The Juilliard School. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  17. ^ "A" (PDF). Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 1780–2010. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. 22. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  18. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
  19. ^ "Junges Konzert – 12.12.2019: Mozart". hr-sinfonieorchester.de (in German). 5 December 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  20. ^ a b "Emanuel Ax". GRAMMY.com. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
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