Emanuel Ax at the Adler Theatre -- April 27.
Saturday, April 27, 7:30 p.m.
Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
Lauded by The Guardian for his "wonderfully straightforward, unfussy approach" and by the New York Times as an artist who "has long been, and continues to be, one of the finest American pianists," seven-time Grammy Award-winner Emanuel Ax will be the featured guest in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's annual springtime Gala Concert, the April 27 performance at Davenport's Adler Theatre boasting a stunning repertoire of works by Mahler, Beethoven, Mozart, and Stravinsky.
The 74-year0old Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, and both his parent, Joachim and Hellen, 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 playing at Miodowa school), and then two years later, they relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where he continued to study music, including as a member of The Junior Musical Club of Winnipeg. In 1961, the family moved to New York City and Ax continued his studies at the Juilliard School under Mieczysław Munz. In 1970, he received his B.A. in French at Columbia University and became an American citizen. The same year, he received an honorable mention at the VIII International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. In 1973 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions.
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. In addition, he has been the main duo recital partner of cellist Yo-Yo Ma since August of 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.
Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Kavakos and Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first two discs have recently been released. He has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas, and has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. In the 2004-05 season, Ax also contributed to an International Emmy Award-Winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
On April 27, the artist will join the QCSO to perform Ludwig Van Beethoven’s powerful and virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”, followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s dark and tempestuous Piano Concerto No. 20. Patrons are also invited to experience the full colors of the orchestra with Gustav Mahler’s shimmering Blumine to open the concert and Igor Stravinsky’s dazzling and triumphant The Firebird Suite that closes the evening.
The QCSO Gala Concert with Emanuel Ax will be presented in Davenport on April 27, admission to the 7:30 p.m. event is $22-93, and the concert will be followed by a "Champagne Afterglow" reception at the neighboring Hotel Blackhawk (200 East Third Street), with the $40 tickets including a change to mingle with symphony musicians, Maestro Mark Russell Smith, and the guest of honor. For more information and tickets, call (563)322-0931 and visit QCSO.org.
