April 12, 7:30 pm, Chrysler Hall
In this return Virginia Arts Festival engagement, Yo Yo Ma is joined by his longtime friend and frequent musical partner, Emanuel Ax, a virtuoso pianist whose passionate performances have drawn acclaim around the world.
The San Francisco Chronicle says, “The silky beauty of Ma’s string tone and Ax’s combination of stolidity and lightness conspired to produce a gorgeous effect… entirely lyrical, marked by fluid phrasing and exquisitely balanced dialogues between the two instruments.”
Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at the Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. He attended Columbia University where he majored in French. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists followed four years later by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.
The program, which the duo will also perform in Washington, DC and Carnegie Hall, consists of all of the Beethoven sonatas for cello and piano.
For tickets, go to www.vafest.org, call 757-282-2822 or go to 440 Bank Street in Norfolk, Monday–Friday, 10 am–5 pm.