The McCormack Endowed Visiting Artist-Scholar Resident
Fall 2010: Emanuel Ax

The ninth McCormack Visiting Artist-Scholar will be Emanuel Ax, a world-renowned classical pianist. Ax will be in residence at Skidmore October 14–16, 2010. While over the past two years the McCormack Resident has operated in collaboration with the First-Year Experience (FYE), bringing to campus composer and musician Terrence Blanchard and choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones, this year the Office of Special Programs has collaborated with the Office of Advancement and the Department of Music in order to dedicate the McCormack Residency to the inaugural year in the Arthur Zankel Music Center. Consequently, during his residency, Ax will work with music students and faculty and during the dedicatory concert perform solo and chamber music and culminate the festivities with a piano concerto, joined by the Skidmore Orchestra. 

Ax will present a brief performance and Q&A session, open to the Skidmore community, at 12:15 p.m. Friday, October 15 in the Arthur Zankel Music Center.

A limited number of tickets to the concert preview at the Zankel Music Center at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 16 are also available to the Skidmore community. We will distribute tickets to the campus community in Case Lobby on Tuesday, October 5 from 1 to 4 p.m. and Wednesday, October 6 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There is a limit of three tickets per person; Skidmore ID is required.

The Zankel Concert featuring Emanuel Ax on Saturday evening is by invitation only.

Ax is renowned not only for his poetic temperament and unsurpassed virtuosity, but also for the exceptional breadth of his performing activity. Each season includes appearances with major symphony orchestras worldwide, recitals in the most celebrated concert halls, chamber music collaborations, the commissioning and performance of new music and additions to his acclaimed discography on Sony BMG Masterworks. 

Born in Poland, Ax moved to Canada with his family when he was a young boy, later settling in New York City.  Studying at the Juilliard School and Columbia University, Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Soon afterward he won the Michael Award of Young Concert Artists and the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. He made his Sony Classical debut with a collection of Chopin scherzos and mazurkas. Ax's third volume in the recording cycle of Haydn Piano Sonatas received a Grammy Award in February 2004; the previous recording in the cycle also won a Grammy. Ax also contributed to an International Emmy award–winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Devoted to chamber music literature, Ax has worked regularly with such artists as Young Uck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin and Jaime Lardo, and he was a frequent collaborator with the late Isaac Stern. Ax's recent projects have included a duo recital tour with Yefim Bronfman with performances at Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall; a performance with Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall; and solo recital tours in both North America and Europe. Recent releases include two discs of two-piano programs with Yefim Bronfman and period-instrument performances of Chopin's complete works for piano and orchestra.  For more information, visit www.EmanuelAx.com.