Carnegie Hall

Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound, and rich character” (The New York Times), clarinetist Anthony McGill enjoys a dynamic international solo and chamber-music career. In addition, he is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—the first African American principal player in the organization’s history. He is also recipient of the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards, and was named Musical America’s 2024 Instrumentalist of the Year.

Mr. McGill appears as a soloist with top orchestras, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, and the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit symphony orchestras. In the 2024–2025 season, he makes his BBC Proms debut, performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Gemma New. He also joins the performance and recording project Principal Brothers with his brother Demarre McGill, as well as Titus Underwood and Bryan Young—four leading Black American woodwind principals performing works by prominent Black composers James Lee III, Valerie Coleman, and Errollyn Wallen.

In 2009, Mr. McGill performed alongside Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. American Stories, his album with the Pacifica Quartet, was nominated for a Grammy Award. He has been a collaborator of the Miró, Shanghai, and Takács quartets, and performs with leading artists who include Inon Barnatan, Gloria Chien, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, Midori, Mitsuko Uchida, and Lang Lang.

Mr. McGill serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is artistic director for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. He is also holder of the William R. and Hyunah Yu Brody Distinguished Chair at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Mr. McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees campaign protesting the death of George Floyd went viral, reaching thousands online. He was invited by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to perform at the dedication of the National Monument to Freedom. Since 2023, he has partnered with civil rights leader Bryan Stevenson to organize EJI classical music convenings in Montgomery, Alabama.

Mr. McGill is a Backun Artist and performs exclusively on Backun clarinets. For more information, visit anthonymcgill.com.

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

The 2024–2025 season began with a continuation of the Beethoven for Three touring and recording project with partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, which takes the trio to the BBC Proms, Dresden, Hamburg, Vienna, and Luxembourg festivals. As guest soloist, Mr. Ax appeared during the New York Philharmonic’s opening week, marking his 47th annual visit to the orchestra. During the season, he returns to the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, San Diego and Nashville symphonies, Pittsburgh and National symphony orchestras, and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. A fall recital tour from Toronto and Boston moved west to include San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, culminating in Chicago and his annual Carnegie Hall appearance this May. In addition to touring with Anthony McGill, Mr. Ax performs chamber music with Itzhak Perlman and Friends across California. An extensive spring tour includes concerts in Paris, Oslo, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw, and Israel.

Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. Along with Mr. Kavakos and Mr. Ma, he has embarked on an ambitious, multi-year project to record all of the Beethoven trios and symphonies arranged for trio, of which the first three albums have 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 of music from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and Columbia University. For more information, visit emanuelax.com.