Daniel Harding Leads Emanuel Ax and the LA Phil in Three Performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall

Pianist Emanuel Ax joins the LA Phil in three performances led by conductor Daniel Harding at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Friday and Saturday, January 8 and 9, at 8 pm, and Sunday, January 10, at 2 pm. The concerts mark Ax's 40th anniversary performing with the LA Phil, making him one of the longest-term collaborators with the orchestra.

The program opens with Berlioz' concert overture Le corsaire, followed by Ax performing Franck's rarely heard concerto-in-one-movement Symphonic Variations. Next on the program is Boulez' Memoriale featuring the LA Phil's new Principal Flute, Denis Bouriakov. The program closes with Schumann's Symphony No. 2. Ax returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall with long-time friend and colleague Itzhak Perlman for a Colburn Celebrity Recitals performance January 12.

Born in Oxford, Daniel Harding began his career assisting Sir Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with which he made his professional debut in 1994. His newest post is Orchestre de Paris, which begins September 2016. He will continue to carry out his roles as Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Music Partner of the New Japan Philharmonic. Additionally, he is Artistic Director of the Ohga Hall in Karuizawa, Japan, and was recently honored with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Harding is a regular visitor to the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Vienna Philharmonic (both of which he has conducted at the Salzburg Festival), the Royal Concertgebouworkest, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. Other guest conducting engagements have included the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Oslo Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées. Among the American orchestras with whom he has performed are the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Harding's recent recordings for Deutsche Grammophon - Mahler's Symphony No. 10 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Orff's Carmina Burana with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - have won widespread critical acclaim.

Emmanuel Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, and he's been an in-demand artist ever since. Three prominent duo collaborations will be carried through his current season. Beginning with the release of sonatas by Fauré and Strauss on the Deutsche Grammophon label, Ax will partner with long-time friend and colleague Itzhak Perlman for concerts in Kansas City, Ravinia, Dallas, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and La Jolla in the first half of the season. A return visit to Japan will be followed by concerts in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Tel Aviv and Amsterdam. As an annual guest with the New York Philharmonic he will play Brahms with Alan Gilbert in addition to return visits to orchestras in Houston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh as well as duos in Philadelphia and New York with violinist Pamela Frank in a program of Mozart sonatas.

Long-standing partner Yo-Yo Ma will join him in Norfolk, VA, Washington, DC and Carnegie Hall where they will program all the Beethoven sonatas for cello and piano. Solo recitals in Tokyo, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Boston will culminate in Carnegie Hall as part of the hall's 125th anniversary celebrations in May. A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, recent releases include Mendelssohn Trios with Yo-Yo- Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss's Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. In 2013, Ax's recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th century music)/Piano.

Complete program:

BERLIOZ Le corsaire
FRANCK Symphonic Variations
BOULEZ Memoriale
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2 Upbeat Live pre-concert events take place in Walt Disney Concert Hall's BP Hall one hour before the concerts, and are free to all ticket holders. Conductor and Associate Professor Christopher Russell hosts.

Tickets for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2015/16 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall are currently available. To purchase, please visit LAPhil.com, the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office or any Ticketmaster outlet. To order by phone with credit card, please call the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office at 323.850.2000, or Ticketmaster at 800.745.3000. For more information, please call 323.850.2000.