Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

EMANUEL AX Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Can- ada, with his family when he was a young boy. In Ax won the rst Arthur Rubinstein In- ternational Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, and the following year he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, then the Avery Fisher Prize four years later. Ax was recently named the Musical America Artist of the Year. For the th anniversary of his debut with the orchestra, Ax’s / season began with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, then he embarked on an Asian tour with concerts in Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong. Following the world premiere at Tanglewood in summer , the concerto written for him by John Williams was reprised with the Boston Symphony in January and re- ceived its NY premiere one month later with New York Philharmonic. As a guest artist, Ax returned to orchestras in Dallas, Saint Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Charles- ton, Madison, Naples, and New Jersey. In recital he appeared in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Santa Barbara, Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Schenecta- dy, and Princeton. An extensive European tour included concerts in Munich, Prague, Berlin, Rome, and Torino. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since , and follow- ing the success of releasing Brahms piano trios with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record Beethoven’s trios as well as his sympho- nies in trio arrangements, the rst three discs of which have been released. He earned Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas, as well as for recordings of Beethoven’s and Brahms’s cel- lo sonatas with Ma. Ax contributed to an Em- my-winning documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates from Skidmore Col- lege, New England Conservatory, and Yale and Columbia Universities. Emanuel Ax made his Ravinia debut in and is marking the th anniversary of his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut this season. is is his th season at Ra- vinia, including being part of the Steans Institute Piano & Strings Program faculty last summer. HUNTERPAVILION 5:00 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 , 2026 CHICAGO SYMPHONYORCHESTRA TED SPERLING, conductor MICAELA DIAMOND, vocalist † BRYONHAMARIE, vocalist † NOAH J. RICKETTS, vocalist † THI S LAND: AMERICA IN SONG “All American” TRADITIONAL Shenandoah FOSTER Oh! Susanna / Hard Times DESYLVA, MEYER& JOLSON California, Here I Come WILLIAMS Basin Street Blues MAYFIELD People Get Ready GERSHWIN Summertime BRUMLEY / TRADITIONAL I’ll Fly Away / When the Saints Go Marching In COPLAND Hoe Down from Rodeo SCHWARTZ&DIETZ Rhode Island Is Famous for You SCHWARTZ For Good DYLAN e Times ey Are a-Changin’ COOKE A Change Is Gonna Come SIMON American Tune ARLEN Over the Rainbow JOHNSON / WARD&BATES Li Every Voice and Sing / America the Beautiful † Ravinia debut This concert is performed In Honor of Sandra K. Crown . RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 97 NIGELPARRY(AX)