Emmanel Ax is considered on of the great piano virtuosos of his generation. Born in Lvov, Poland, he 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. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and 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.
Mr. Ax has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. A frequent and committed partner for chamber music, he has worked regularly with such artists as Mr. Ma, Edgar Meyer, Peter Serkin, Jaime Laredo and the late Isaac Stern. Mr. Ax was Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic for the 2012-13 season.
