Master pianist Emanuel Ax will perform a classical repertoire of Beethoven and Schumann selections Friday, Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. in Memorial Chapel as part of the Union College Chamber Concert Series.
Ax is on a solo recital tour in Europe and North America that will take him to London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and New York’s Carnegie Hall.
In his third performance at Union, Ax will perform Beethoven’s Sonata in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2 and Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, “Appassionata.”
Selections from Schumann will include “Humoreske” in B-flat Major, Op. 20 and “Papillons,” Op. 2.
Ax is well-known to area audiences through his many appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax was raised in Winnipeg, Canada, and studied at the Juilliard School. He captured public attention in 1974, at age 25, when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Since then, he has garnered numerous coveted prizes, including the Avery Fisher Prize and six Grammy Awards.
He has been recording exclusively for Sony Classical since 1987. Last fall, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki.
The concert is free for the Union College community, $25 for general admission and $10 for area students. For tickets, call 388-6080; for more information on the series, call 372-3651 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.