Carnegie Hall

Born in Lvov, Poland, 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 Master Competition in Tel Aviv. Mr. Ax won the Michaels Award of the Young Concert Artists in 1975, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.

Highlights of the 2019–2020 season included a tour of European summer festivals with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Bernard Haitink, a tour of Asia with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, and concerts with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall in March 2020. Additional recitals and orchestral appearances were postponed due to COVID-19, and like many artists around the world,
Mr. Ax creatively responded to these unprecedented circumstances. He hosted “Legacy of Great Pianists,” part of the online Live with Carnegie Hall series, in which he highlighted legendary pianists who have performed at the Hall. He also joined Mr. Ma in a series of surprise pop-up concerts for essential workers in venues throughout the Berkshires community. When concert activities resumed, he appeared in the reopening weekend of Tanglewood, both with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in a Beethoven trio program with Mr. Kavakos and Mr. Ma. Concerts with the Colorado, Pacific, Cincinnati and Houston symphonies; Los Angeles and New York philharmonics; and Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Cleveland orchestras follow in the 2021–2022 season. 

Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. He has received multiple Grammy Awards and the ECHO Klassik award for Solo Recording of the Year. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holds honorary doctorate degrees in music from Skidmore College, Yale University, and Columbia University.

Leonidas Kavakos is recognized as a violinist and artist of rare quality, known for his virtuosity, musicianship, and the integrity of his playing. By age 21, he had won three major competitions: the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition (1985), Paganini Competition (1988), and Naumburg International Violin Competition (1988). This success led to his recording Sibelius’s Violin Concerto—the first recording of this work in history—which won the Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award in 1991. Mr. Kavakos was awarded the Gramophone Artist of the Year Award in 2014, and was the 2017 winner of Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize.

Mr. Kavakos is a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist in the 2021–2022 season, performing in a variety of concerts that include a recital with pianist Yuja Wang, which was toured across the US in November 2021; the North American premiere of a violin concerto by composer Unsuk Chin; and tonight’s concert with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma, which will also be performed on tour. In recent years, Mr. Kavakos has succeeded in building a strong profile as a conductor, having collaborated with the New York Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, and Vienna Symphony, among others. This season, he returns to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Kavakos is an exclusive recording artist with Sony Classical. He recently re-released his 2007 recording of Beethoven’s complete sonatas with Enrico Pace, for which he was named ECHO Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year. 

Born and raised in a musical family in Athens, he curates an annual violin and chamber-music master class in his native city, which attracts violinists and ensembles from all over the world. 

Mr. Kavakos plays the “Willemotte” Stradivarius violin of 1734.

Yo-Yo Ma’s multifaceted career is a testament to his enduring belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, collaborating with communities and institutions to explore culture’s social impact, or delving into unexpected musical forms, Mr. Ma strives to foster connections that stimulate our imagination and reinforce our humanity.

With partners from around the world and across disciplines, he creates programs that stretch the boundaries of genre and tradition to explore music-making not only as a way to share and express meaning, but also as a model for the cultural collaboration he considers essential to a strong society. It was this belief that inspired Mr. Ma to establish Silkroad, a collective of artists from around the world who create music that engages their many traditions.

In 2018, Mr. Ma began a new journey setting out to perform J. S. Bach’s six suites for solo cello in one sitting in 36 locations around the world: iconic venues that encompass our cultural heritage, creativity, and the challenges of peace and understanding that will shape our future.

Mr. Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four, and three years later, moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies with Leonard Rose at The Juilliard School. After his conservatory training, he sought out a liberal arts education, graduating from Harvard in 1976. He has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration.