Tragedy & Triumph Festival: Mozart + Beethoven’s Eroica

Conductor Juraj Valčuha is recognized for his effortless expressiveness and depth of musicianship. With sharp baton technique and natural stage presence, the impressive ease of his interpretations translate even the most complex scores into immersive experiences. His profound understanding of composer and score, taste, and naturally elegant style make him one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation.

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. He 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 four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.

The 2023-24 Season focuses on the world premiere of Anders Hillborg’s piano concerto, commissioned for him by the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen, with subsequent performances in Stockholm and New York. A continuation of the “Beethoven For 3” touring and recording project with partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma took them to the mid-west in January. In recital, Emanuel was heard on the west coast in the fall and mid-west/east coast in the spring, and will culminate at Carnegie Hall in April. An extensive European tour includes concerts in Holland, Italy, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic.

Emanuel has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Kavakos and Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first two discs have recently been released. He has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. In the 2004-05 Season, Emanuel contributed to an International Emmy Award-Winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, his recording, Variations, received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19^th Century Music/Piano).Emanuel Ax 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. For more information about his career, please visit www.EmanuelAx.com.