Emanuel Ax

(b Lwów, 8 June 1949). American pianist. He studied in Warsaw and in New York at the Juilliard School. After success in a competition in Israel in 1974, he made his New York début in 1975 and played in London two years later; he is a noted player of 20th-century music but is admired above all for his fluent, tasteful and often powerful readings of Chopin and Schumann.

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Emanuel Ax (born 1949), American pianist, winner of the first Artur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, became a major contemporary intetpreter of the traditional piano literature who was also willing to explore serious new compositions for the piano.

Emanuel Ax was born in Lwow, eastern Poland in 1949. His father, a coach at the Lwow Opera House, was the pianist's first teacher. Ax commenced his study of the piano when he was seven years old. One year later his family moved to Warsaw, and soon after, having secured exit visas, they emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, where they had relatives. In 1961, after a year and a half in Canada, the family moved once more, this time to New York City. Emanuel Ax, then 11 years old, enrolled in the Pre-College Division at Juilliard. His only formal piano teacher at Juilliard was Mieczslaw Munz, with whom he studied for four years, eventually winning the Young Concert Artists' Michaels Award, among other honors. He majored in French at Columbia University.

Musical Career

In 1969, Ax toured Latin America. In 1970, he entered the Chopin contest in Warsaw, and came in seventh place. Continuing difficulties during this phase of his career included placing third in the Viaμnna da Motta competition in Lisbon in 1971 and undistinguished recognition in the Queen Elizabeth Contest in Brussels in 1972. Despite this, Ax persisted and achieved a decisive breakthrough at the first Artur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1974.

Rubinstein cultivated his young protegé, counseling him, occasionally soliciting his advice, and in general treating him as a fellow artist. In 1979, Ax won the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.

Ax became one of the most sought-after concert performers of this period. He often played chamber music at summer events in Aspen, Colorado, and maintained an extremely active schedule, giving as many as 90 concerts a year. He performed with virtually every major orchestra in eastern and western Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Asia. He has compiled an extensive and essential contemporary discography. In addition to his solo recordings, he has numerous releases with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, with whom Ax claimed to have a special musical rapport over the past 20 years. He has also won Grammy Awards.

Ax's expertise was concentrated on the standard piano literature, the Romantic and Classical repertoire cultivated by such pianists as Artur Rubinstein, among others. Ax did not limit himself exclusively to this piano literature, but it was his mainstay. In 1984, he performed Hans Werner Henze's Tristan (1974) with the composer conducting the New York Philharmonic. Ax explored current literature to uncover little known works he could present to the listening public, but he required that they be accessible to his particular expertise and audience. More characteristically perhaps, he presented compositions from the Romantic and Classical periods, for example the Années de P'erinage of Liszt, and he had an intellectual's grasp, as well as an artist's, of the details in the standard piano repertoire.

When learning a new composition, he focused his attention not exclusively upon the score, but read the scholarly secondary source literature including music criticism, biography, and history. At the same time, he was moving away from the keyboard, thus bringing a combined technical acumen and intuitive grasp to the individual work. Ax felt his primary responsibility to be communication with his audience, providing them with a serious experience that would enliven their grasp of the music, its composer, and the tradition in which both could be found.

Further Reading

Ax is discussed briefly in Baker's Biographical Dictionary, 6th ed. (1978). His concerts and recordings have been reviewed in all major newspapers and music journals. The pianist himself is the subject of the following articles: "Who wants to be another Horowitz?" S. Clark, Village Voice 23 (March 20, 1978); "Emanuel Ax," interview with A. Kozinn, Fugue 4 (November 1979); "Time Off with Emanuel Ax," interview with L.P. Yost, Clavier 19 (1980); "Casual Conversation with a Touring Virtuoso," Paul Hertelendy, Contemporary Keyboard (February 1980); "An Interview with Emanuel Ax," D. Manildi, American Record 45 (January-February 1982); "Emanuel Ax Goes 20th Century," Allan Kozinn, Keynote (July 1984); "Pianist Emanuel Ax: An Adventurous Virtuoso, "Karen Monson, Ovation (April 1985).

Other articles on Ax include: "Classical Keeping Score, "Billboard (February 24, 1996) and "Ax & Ma: Duo Extraordinary," Musical America (May 1990).

• Period: Classical (1750-1819)
• Born: June 08, 1949 in Lviv, Ukraine

Biography

From a string of early career successes in the 1970s, Emanuel Ax has emerged as one of the most versatile, brilliant, and universally respected pianists on the international concert scene.

Ax's father was a coach at the Lwow Opera House. Emanuel's talent and interest in music manifested itself early; his first instrument was actually the violin, though he eventually took up piano lessons with his father. After living for a time in Warsaw, then Winnipeg, Canada, the family moved to the United States in 1961, and Ax began studies with Mieczyslaw Munz at the Juilliard School. He made his first concert tour, to South Africa, in 1969; in the following year he became an American citizen.

Ax is the rare musician who was able to parlay exposure via the competition circuit into a lasting and truly successful international career. After disappointing finishes in high-profile events like the Chopin Competition and the Queen Elizabeth Competition, Ax withdrew from competing for a time to make his New York debut, at Alice Tully Hall, on March 12, 1973. In the following year, he at last took top prize in an event of some importance, the Rubinstein Piano Master Competition. It was with this success -- which included an American concert tour -- that Ax's star began to rise toward international superstardom. In 1979 he was awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, which led to a recording contract with RCA Victor.

As a soloist Ax has demonstrated a particular affinity for the Romantics; nonetheless, his repertoire is among the most diverse of any pianist on the scene today and ranges from the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven to important twentieth century figures like Tippett, Henze, and Hindemith. He is also a particular champion of contemporary music, and has played and commissioned works from such composers as Joseph Schwantner, John Adams, and Christopher Rouse. He is considered by players and audiences alike to be a chamber musician par excellence; his frequent partners in this endeavor include Isaac Stern, Jaime Laredo, and Richard Stolzman. His regular collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma have netted the pair three Grammy Awards. Ax has also demonstrated an interest in "authentic" performance; he recorded the Chopin concerti on an 1853 Erard piano very similar to Chopin's own instrument. Ax maintains a busy recording and recital schedule and frequently appears with the world's leading orchestras and at the major music festivals. He resides with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki, and their two children in New York City. ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide

Discography

Robert Schumann: Quartet In E-Flat, Op. 47/Quintet In E-Flat, Op. 44 Buy this CD	Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 Buy this CD	Beethoven: Emperor Concerto / Polonaise, Op. 73 / Choral Fantasia Buy this CD	Beethoven: Emperor Concerto / Polonaise, Op. 73 / Choral Fantasia Buy this CD	Haydn: Piano Sonatas Nos. 32, 47, 55 & 59 Buy this CD
Brahms: 7 Fantasies, Op. 116; 4 Piano Pieces, Op. 119; Sonata No. 2, Op. 2 Buy this CD	Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5; Intermezzi, Op. 117 Buy this CD	Franz Joseph Haydn: Sonatas Buy this CD	Frederic Chopin: Scherzos & Mazurkas Buy this CD	Brahms: Handel Variations/Six Piano Pieces/Two Rhapsodies Buy this CD

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