High-resolution photos: http://www.celebrityseries.org/Photo_Galleries/805-EmanAx_Gallery.htm

CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON PRESENTS
PIANIST EMANUEL AX
IN RECITAL AT NEC’s JORDAN HALL
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4

(BOSTON)—Celebrity Series of Boston, Martha H. Jones, President and Executive Director, presents pianist Emanuel Ax in recital at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall on Sunday, November 4 at 3:00 p.m. This performance is an Aaron Richmond Recital.

Mr. Ax made his recital debut with the Celebrity Series of Boston 25 years ago in October 1982. November’s engagement marks his 26th Celebrity Series appearance, and his 5th recital engagement.

Emanuel Ax is renowned not only for his poetic temperament and unsurpassed virtuosity, but also for the exceptional breadth of his performance activity. Each season he appears with major symphony orchestras around the world, in recital in the most celebrated concert halls, and as part of a variety of chamber music ensembles.

Born in Lvov, Poland, Mr. Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada with his family when he was a young boy. He studied piano under Mieczylaw Munz at The Juilliard School, where he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when, at age 25, he won the first Artur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and, four years later, the Avery Fisher Prize. He has recorded exclusively for the Sony Classical label since 1987, making his debut on that label with a collection of Chopin scherzos and mazurkas. Mr. Ax’s third volume in the recording cycle of Haydn Piano Sonatas (Nos. 29, 31, 34, 35, 49) received a Grammy Award in February 2004.

Mr. Ax’s recent performance highlights have included recital tours with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Yefim Bronfman; a tour of the Far East with recitals in Guangzhou, Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taipei; and a tour of the United States with the Dresden Staatskapelle and conductor Myung-Whun Chung. In 2004–05, Mr. Ax contributed to an International Emmy Award-winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Mr. Ax has turned his attention in recent years toward the music of 20th-century composers. He gave the world premiere of John Adams’ “Century Rolls” with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1997, the European premiere with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1998, and the New York premiere with the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2000. A concerto dedicated to him, Christopher Rouse’s “Seeing”, was premiered in 1999 with the New York Philharmonic and received its European debut at the BBC Proms in 2001. In 2000 Mr. Ax joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the first performances of Bright Sheng’s “Red Silk Dance”, and in March 2003 he joined Yo-Yo Ma, David Zinman, and the New York Philharmonic to premiere Mr. Sheng’s “Song and Dance of Tears.”

Devoted to chamber music literature, Mr. Ax has worked regularly with such artists as Young Uck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, and Jaime Laredo, and collaborated frequently with the late Isaac Stern. He has made a series of acclaimed recordings with Mr. Ma, and as a duo they have won three Grammy Awards for their recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. The pair has also teamed with Richard Stoltzman for a Grammy Award-winning album of clarinet trios and with Pamela Frank, Rebecca Young, and Edgar Meyer for the Schubert “Trout” Quintet.

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Sunday, November 4 at 3:00 PM
NEC’s Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston
Emanuel Ax, piano

BEETHOVEN
Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Opus 2, no. 2

SCHUMANN
Humoreske in B-flat Major, Opus 20

SCHUMANN
Papillons, Opus 2

BEETHOVEN
Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Opus 57, “Appassionata”

An Aaron Richmond Recital

TICKETING INFORMATION
Remaining tickets, priced at $45, are available by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661, Monday-Friday
10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., or online at www.celebrityseries.org.

About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston is New England's leading presenter of music, dance, and the performing arts from around the world. Founded in 1938, the Series incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 1989. Each year, the Celebrity Series brings to Boston's major concert halls performances by instrumental and vocal soloists, symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance companies, jazz and popular music performers, folk and ethnic performance groups, and other performing artists. The Celebrity Series' Arts, Education and Community program was initiated in 1984. The program reaches thousands of students annually in Boston area schools and communities. The program includes the award-winning AileyCamp Boston, a six-week summer dance program for Boston middle school students, and ACT 2, an after-school initiative for former participants of AileyCamp Boston. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series receives major annual support from two anonymous donors; The Little Family Foundation; The Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; Bank of America; The Linde Family Foundation; Tufts Health Plan; Talbots Charitable Foundation; Foley & Lardner LLP; Charlesbank Capital Partners; Comcast; Morgan Stanley; BDO Seidman; PTC; Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation; Steven and Joan Belkin Foundation; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; The Consulate General of Canada; The Collings Foundation; The Esther B. Kahn Charitable Foundation; The Red Sox Foundation; Massachusetts Cultural Council; National Endowment for the Arts; New England Foundation for the Arts; Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Foundation; The Harris A. Berman and Ruth E. Nemzoff Family Foundation; Amy and Joshua Boger; DeMoulas Foundation; Margaret Eagle and Eli Rapaport; Kathleen and Steven Haley; Cerise and Charles Jacobs; Paul L. King; Jann E. Leeming and Arthur D. Little; Paul F. and Barbara A. Levy; Frank and Eleanor Pao; Spring Sirkin and Arthur Frank; Dorothy and Stephen Weber; Nancy Richmond Winsten and Dr. Joseph Winsten; Charles O. Wood, III and Miriam M. Wood; Ellen and Arnold Zetcher.

# # #