Palm Beach Symphony Wraps Season With Guest Pianist Emanuel Ax
The performance is on May 17.
Palm Beach Symphony's season finale will be led by pianist Emanuel Ax. He'll perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-Flat Major, K. 482 in a concert that also features Ludwig van Beethoven's heroic Egmont Overture, Op. 84 and Gustav Holst's spellbinding cosmic journey, The Planets, Op. 32. The Sunday, May 17 matinee concert begins at 3 p.m. in Dreyfoos Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.
Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada with his family when he was a young boy and made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series. He won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv in 1974, Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists in 1975 and Avery Fisher Prize in 1979.
“Manny Ax plays with intellect and intuition,” said Music Director Gerard Schwarz. “He's a remarkably versatile artist who can play music old and new, from Chopin to Bach to Mozart to Beethoven. We're so lucky to have him with us this season for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22.”
Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987 and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies. He has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn's piano sonatas and has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. During the 2004-2005 season, 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, his recording, Variations, received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year.
Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary music doctorates from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University and Columbia University.
Palm Beach Symphony will also play Holst's most famous work, The Planets. The audience will be launched into the solar system while transported through the notes. “He uses not only an orchestra, but also a chorus. In the last movement, we'll have a chorus off-stage singing this ethereal music. There aren't lyrics, only sounds,” teased Maestro Schwarz. “As the piece ends, the doors will close, and the chorus will disappear. It also has two sets of timpani and calls for huge brass and woodwind sections. The Planets is very difficult to play, yet among the most popular symphonic works of the 20th century by one of the great English composers."
The vocals during the Holst piece will be performed by Young Singers of the Palm Beaches. The chorus is made up of a double trio, which means there are six different parts, four singers per part, for a total of 24 voices. Young Singers of the Palm Beaches is a dynamic and inspiring community-based children's choir that has been igniting the passion of children in grades 2-12 for two decades. Prior to their participation in this final Masterworks Concert of the season, Young Singers of the Palm Beaches will give the Overture Series Pre-Concert Performance from 2 to 2:45 p.m. in the Kravis Center lobby. Since 2003, the organization's commitment to creating a supportive and nurturing environment for its singers is evident in every activity it undertakes, from its highly acclaimed performances to its innovative education initiatives. Using music as a common denominator, Young Singers gives children the tools to thrive musically, academically and personally. In June 2024, the choir performed as the Spotlight Choir at Carnegie Hall in “A Light Shines.” Young Singers of the Palm Beaches, or YSPB as it is fondly known, rehearses at the Kravis Center, in Boynton Beach and in North Palm Beach. For more information visit yspb.org.
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