Redevelopment of Norris University Center’s East Lawn to begin this summer
April 5, 2024
EVANSTON --- Seven-time Grammy Award winning pianist Emanuel Ax begins the first of two residencies in May at Northwestern University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music.
During the residency, Ax, who was awarded the 2016 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance, will engage with students, faculty and the public in activities such as master classes, chamber music coaching and guided discussions.
He will also close out the 2016/2017 Skyline Piano Artist Series with a sold-out public performance on Wednesday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall, 70 Arts Circle Drive, on the Evanston campus. A limited number of tickets for the sold-out concert may be returned and will be made available for resale starting May 1.
The Bienen School of Music established the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in 2005. The biennial $50,000 prize honors pianists who have achieved the highest levels of national and international recognition. As part of the award, Ax serves two residencies at the Bienen School scheduled for May 2017 and May 2018.
One of the most sought-after pianists performing today and a favorite of Chicago audiences, Ax also performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others.
A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, he has garnered numerous accolades for his solo and chamber releases, including a series of Grammy-winning recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms cello-piano sonatas with Yo-Yo Ma.
Ax is a committed exponent of contemporary composers, with a repertoire that includes works written for him by John Adams, Bright Sheng, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof Penderecki and Melinda Wagner. This season he premieres two newly commissioned works, HK Gruber’s Piano Concerto with conductor Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic and Samuel Adams’s Schubert-inspired Impromptus.
Ax’s Skyline series program includes Franz Schubert’s Four Impromptus (D. 935), Samuel Adams’ Impromptus and Frédéric Chopin’s Impromptus No. 1 and 2 and Sonata No. 3 in B Minor. A reception for Skyline Piano Artist Series subscribers in the Jean Gimbel Lane Reception Room follows the concert.
For more information, call the Bienen School of Music Concert Management Office at 847-491-5441 or visit concertsatbienen.org. To purchase available resale tickets May 1, call 847-467-4000.
The Bienen School of Music is a member of the Northwestern Arts Circle, which brings together film, humanities, literary arts, music, theater, dance and visual arts. Search for events across all artistic disciplines at Northwestern Arts Circle.
