Carnegie Hall

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.

Having performed with every major orchestra and at concert halls around the globe, Mr. Perlman was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor—by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000, and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986. Mr. Perlman has been honored with 16 Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Genesis Prize.

In the 2022–2023 season, Mr. Perlman conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Houston Symphony performing Mozart’s Requiem and is joined by an illustrious group of collaborators in a special Itzhak Perlman and Friends program appearing in only three locations: Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, University Musical Society Ann Arbor, and Carnegie Hall. He continues touring An Evening with Itzhak Perlman, which captures highlights of his career through narrative and multimedia elements intertwined with performance, to Boston, Philadelphia, Long Island, Akron, Austin, Tallahassee, and Naples, Florida. He played season-opening concerts for the Colorado Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and Florida Orchestra, and performs recitals across the US with longtime collaborator Rohan De Silva.

Mr. Perlman currently serves as artistic partner of the Houston Symphony in a relationship that commenced in the 2020–2021 season and culminates at the end of the 2023–2024 season. He performs nine programs across three seasons that feature him in versatile appearances as conductor, soloist, recitalist, and presenter.

Mr. Perlman leads an exclusive series of classes with Masterclass.com, the premier online education company, as the company’s first classical music presenter.

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. He 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 from Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.

In fall 2021, he resumed a post-pandemic touring schedule that included concerts with the Colorado, Pacific, Cincinnati, and Houston symphonies as well as Minnesota, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland orchestras. This season, he tours with Itzhak Perlman and Friends and continues the Beethoven for Three touring and recording project with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

In recital, he can be heard in Palm Beach, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, New York, and Washington, DC, and with orchestras in Atlanta, Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Naples, Toronto, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Portland, Oregon. His touring activities in Europe this season include concerts in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and France.

Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. Following a successful Brahms piano trios recording with Mr. Kavakos and Mr. Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven trios and symphonies arranged for trio—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 Mr. Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. In the 2004–2005 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 from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory, Yale University, and Columbia University.

For more than three decades, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has performed worldwide, recorded more than 50 albums, and built a reputation as one of today’s finest pianists. From the start of his career, he delighted in music outside the standard repertoire, from jazz to opera. His profound professional friendships crisscross the globe and have led to spontaneous and fruitful collaborations in film, fashion, and visual art.

Mr. Thibaudet has a lifelong passion for education and fostering young musical talent. He is the first-ever artist-in-residence at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where he makes his home. In 2017, the school announced the Jean-Yves Thibaudet Scholarships, funded by members of Colburn’s donor community, to provide aid for academy students, whom Mr. Thibaudet will select for the merit-based awards regardless of their instrument.

Mr. Thibaudet’s recording catalog has received two Grammy nominations, a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Edison Prize, and Gramophone awards. His most recent album, Carte Blanche (2021), features a collection of deeply personal solo piano pieces never before recorded by the pianist. He is soloist on Wes Anderson’s film The French Dispatch; his playing can also be heard in the films Pride and Prejudice, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Wakefield, and the Academy Award–winning and critically acclaimed Atonement.

In 2010, the Hollywood Bowl honored Mr. Thibaudet for his musical achievements by inducting him into its Hall of Fame. Previously a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, he was awarded the title Officier by the French Ministry of Culture in 2012. In 2020, he was named special representative for the promotion of French creative and cultural industries in Romania. He is co-artistic advisor of the Festival Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot.

Mr. Thibaudet’s concert wardrobe is designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood.

With unparalleled artistry and enduring vigor, the Juilliard String Quartet continues to inspire audiences around the world. Founded in 1946 and hailed by The Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” the ensemble draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics while championing new works, a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. Each performance of the Juilliard String Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment, and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature.

In the 2022–2023 season, the Juilliard String Quartet welcomes violist Molly Carr. The season began with a multi-city European tour, including stops in Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic, followed by the premiere of two string quartets by Jörg Widmann performed with late quartets by Beethoven in Tucson, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and Napa Valley. The quartet also tours with violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, culminating in tonight’s concert. Spring highlights include the premiere of Tyson Davis’s String Quartet No. 2, commissioned by the Kennedy Center, DaCamera Society of Houston, and Chamber Music Cincinnati; appearances in Philadelphia and Detroit; and a return tour to Austria and Germany.

Adding to its celebrated discography, the Juilliard String Quartet released an album of works by Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvořák on Sony Classical in 2021 to critical acclaim. The quartet’s recordings of the Bartók and Schoenberg quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel, and Beethoven, have won Grammy Awards, and in 2011, the quartet became the first classical music ensemble to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Devoted master teachers, the members of the Juilliard String Quartet offer classes and open rehearsals on tour. The ensemble is string quartet in residence at Juilliard and its members are all sought-after teachers on the string and chamber music faculties. Each May, they host the five-day, internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar.