Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma Will Perform at The Bushnell in December
The pianist and cellist are longtime collaborators known for their Beethoven For Three series with Leonidas Kavakos.
The Bushnell, in partnership with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, will present An Evening with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma on Friday, December 4, 2026, at 7:30 PM.
Longtime friends and collaborators for decades — most recently in their Beethoven For Three series with Leonidas Kavakos — Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma bring their extraordinary musical partnership to the recital stage.
Tickets go on sale Friday, August 14, at 10 AM and can be purchased online, by calling (860) 987-5900, or by visiting The Bushnell box office at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford, CT.
About the Artists
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. Mr. Ax 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 by the Avery Fisher Prize. Emanuel Ax was recently named the 2026 Musical America Artist of the Year.
As Artist in Residence for the 26/27 season with Radio France, the season begins with a European tour with performances in Munich, Paris, and Amsterdam. Upon return to North America, Ax will embark on a tour with The Knights which will conclude with a performance at Carnegie Hall. An avid collaborator, Mr. Ax's season will also include performances with long-term musical colleagues and friends, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. He will return to orchestras in Boston, New York, Kansas City, Irvine, Portland, Seattle, Sarasota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles. In recital he can be heard in Omaha, Palm Beach, New Orleans, Ridgefield, La Jolla, San Francisco, Schenectady, Rochester, and at Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. He launched a multi-year project with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies of which the first four discs have been released. He 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.
Yo-Yo Ma's multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture's power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing communities together to explore culture's role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.
Most recently, Yo-Yo began Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Our Common Nature follows the Bach Project, a 36-community, six-continent tour of J. S. Bach's cello suites paired with local cultural programming. Both endeavors reflect Yo-Yo's lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to understand how music helps us to imagine and build a stronger society.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, where he began studying the cello with his father at age four. When he was seven, he moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies before pursuing a liberal arts education. Yo-Yo has recorded more than 120 albums, is the winner of 20 Grammy Awards, and has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden's inauguration. He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He has been a UN Messenger of Peace since 2006, and was recognized as one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Photo Credit: Nigel Parry.
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