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Van Cliburn Concert: Emanuel Ax

Music/Performance
Great Hall
$45 ($36/members, $10/students & teachers)
This event has passed
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will be closed Monday, May 13, to prepare for the visit of Antiques Roadshow. We will return to normal hours of operation Wednesday, May 15.
Emanuel Ax photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco

Don’t miss the first concert for 2024 Van Cliburn Concert Series! Join us on an extraordinary musical journey through the seasons with three unique concerts in spring, summer, and fall. As a close friend to world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Emanual Ax is renowned as one of the greatest living classical pianists, with over 50 years of award-winning performances. Witness his artistry in the intimate setting of the Great Hall, where he will captivate the audience on a piano once owned by the iconic Van Cliburn. With stunning views and soul-stirring music, we hope to see you there.

Tickets are $45 ($36/members, $10/students & teachers). Reserve your spot online or with Guest Services at (479) 657-2335 today.

 

Program

Beethoven
Sonata Op. 13 Pathetique
Schoenberg
3 Pieces Op. 11
Beethoven
Sonata Op. 2 No. 2

Intermission

Schoenberg
3 Pieces (1894)
6 Little Pieces Op. 19
Beethoven
Sonata Op. 57 Appassionata

About Emanuel Ax

Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 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 Avery Fisher Prize.

Mr. 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. 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.

Emanuel Ax photo by NigelParry

In the 2004/05 season 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. In 2013, Mr. Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music/Piano).

Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and Columbia University.

Sponsored by

The Van Cliburn Concert Series Endowment Fund supported by
Susan and Chip Chambers | Mary Ann and Reed Greenwood | Kay and Ellis Melton | Marti and Kelly Sudduth | Alice L. Walton

Additional sponsorship provided by Ellen and Malcolm Hayward and Jill and Tom King

Special thanks to Tommy Smith and Steinway & Sons.