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 by the Avery Fisher Prize. Emanuel Ax was recently named the 2026 Musical America Artist of the Year. As Artist in Residence for the 26/27 season with Radio France, the season begins with a European tour with performances in Munich, Paris, and Amsterdam. Upon return to North America, Ax will embark on a tour with The Knights which will conclude with a performance at Carnegie Hall. An avid collaborator, Mr. Ax’s season will also include performances with long-term musical colleagues and friends, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. He will return to orchestras in Boston, New York, Kansas City, Irvine, Portland, Seattle, Sarasota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles. In recital he can be heard in Omaha, Palm Beach, New Orleans, Ridgefield, La Jolla, San Francisco, Schenectady, Rochester, and at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. He launched a multi-year project with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies of which the first four discs have been released. He 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.
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