We are fortunate again this year to host outstanding singers and classical musicians in Eugene, a small college town. Last night’s performance was fantastic with renowned guest pianist Emanuel Ax playing Brahms and the Eugene Symphony and Chorus performing Mozart’s dramatic Requiem K 626.
“In Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, the Eugene Symphony was joined by renowned pianist and seven-time Grammy winner Emanuel Ax, hailed for his ‘luminous intensity’ by The New York Times.”
Born in Poland, Emanuel Ax and his family moved to Canada when he was a boy. He studied at Juilliard and later won the Young Concert Artists Award. In 1974 he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, in 1975 the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, and in 1979 the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.
“In recognition of the bicentenaries of Chopin and Schumann in 2010 and in partnership with London’s Barbican, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony, Mr. Ax commissioned new works from composers John Adams, Peter Lieberson, and Osvaldo Golijov for three recital programs presented in each of those cities with colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Dawn Upshaw.”
More recently Mr. Ax has focused on the music of 20th-century composers premiering works by John Adams, Christopher Rouse, and others. He is also devoted to chamber music and has worked with many renowned artists, including Peter Serkin and the late Isaac Stern. He recently made a New Recording: Mendelssohn Piano Trio’s with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman.
Highlights of his current season include performances with orchestras in Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Toronto, and at Lincoln Center in NYC focusing on the music of Schubert. What a pleasure it was to hear Emanuel Ax play with our symphony at the Hult Center!
“Two hundred and twenty years after its start, the ‘perpetual light’ of Mozart’s final masterpiece, Requiem, will shine on the two hundred musicians who bring this powerful piece to life.” Four outstanding soloists and the Eugene Symphony Chorus joined our symphony for this performance:
- Christina Pier – Soprano
- Amanda Crider – Mezzo-Soprano
- Benjamin Butterfield – Tenor
- Robert Gleadow – Bass
It was a wonderful evening!
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