Washington Performing Arts’ 2015/16 season kicks off at 7pm on September 28, 2015, at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with one of classical music’s most beloved and acclaimed duos: master violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist extraordinaire Emanuel Ax. The two legendary figures take the stage amid a Perlman 70th-birthday celebration that includes a new album on Deutsche Grammophon (releasing August 28) featuring the Fauré and Strauss sonatas that they are performing on this concert. Earlier this year, Deutsche Gramophone released a retrospective boxed set of 25 previously released Perlman DG and Decca CDs, a compendium of the violinist’s “bravura playing” (Los Angeles Times).
Who: Itzhak Perlman, violin
Emanuel Ax, piano
Where: Kennedy Center Concert Hall
When: Monday, September 28, 2015 at 7pm
Program: MOZART Sonata No. 17 in C Major, K.296
FAURÉ Sonata No. 1 in A Major, Op. 13
STRAUSS Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 18
Additi
Tickets: Start at $55, available at washingtonperformingarts.org or (202) 785-9727
The season-opening concert also inaugurates one of the major programming themes of Washington Performing Arts’ 2015/16 season, “Dynamic Duos,” showcasing intimate pairings of artists ranging from perennial collaborators such as Perlman and Ax (and, in April of 2016, Ax with cellist Yo-Yo Ma) to the world-premiere concert collaboration of classical pianist Jeremy Denk and jazz pianist Jason Moran on Friday, October 9.
“Washington Performing Arts begins our new season with an eye toward the future, but fully appreciative of the many artists who have left an indelible mark on the performing arts in our nation’s capital over the past 49 seasons,” said Jenny Bilfield, Washington Performing Arts President and CEO. “In addition to showcasing new talent and introducing D.C. audiences to some of today’s hottest artists, we’re excited to welcome back orchestras, ensembles, artists and dance companies that have been pivotal to our success over prior seasons. Not only have they graced our stages, they have enriched our communities and advanced the arts giving their talent and time to advance many of our important community-based initiatives. I can think of no better way to begin this season then by featuring a collaboration between two absolute legends – Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax.”
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Born in Israel in 1945, Mr. Perlman completed his initial training at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. An early recipient of an America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship, he came to New York and soon was propelled to national recognition with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. Following his studies at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, he won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964, which led to a burgeoning worldwide career.
Itzhak Perlman’s recordings have garnered 16 GRAMMY® Awards and regularly appear on the best-seller charts. In 2008, Mr. Perlman was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in the recording arts.
Having performed with every major orchestra and at venerable concert halls around the globe, Itzhak Perlman was granted a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003 by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in celebration of his distinguished achievements and contributions to the cultural and educational life of the United States.
Over the past two decades, Mr. Perlman has become more actively involved in music education, using this opportunity to encourage gifted young string players. Alongside his wife Toby, his close involvement in the Perlman Music Program has been a particularly rewarding experience, and he has taught full-time at the Program each summer since its founding in 1993. Mr. Perlman currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair at the Juilliard School.
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. Additionally, he attended Columbia University where he majored in French. Mr. 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.
A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, recent releases include Mendelssohn Trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. Mr. Ax 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. His other recordings include the concertos of Liszt and Schoenberg, three solo Brahms albums, an album of tangos by Astor Piazzolla, and the premiere recording of John Adams’s Century Rolls with the Cleveland Orchestra for Nonesuch. In the 2004/05 season, Mr. 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. In 2013, Mr. Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th century music)/Piano.
Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia Universities.
D.C. audiences will also have the opportunity to hear Emanuel Ax during an additional Washington Performing Arts engagement with his frequent collaborator, cellist Yo-Yo Maon April 13, 2015, at 8pm at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.
Washington Performing Arts is committed to making every event accessible for persons with disabilities. Please call the Ticket Services Office for more information on accessibility to the various theaters in which our performances are held. Services offered vary from venue to venue and may require advance notice.
About Washington Performing Arts
Since 1965, Washington Performing Arts has had a foundational role in the arts in our nation’s capital, creating profound opportunities that connect community and artists, in both education and performance. Through live events in 10 venues that span the D.C. metropolitan area, the careers of emerging artists are launched and nurtured, and established artists return to develop closer relationships with Washington Performing Arts’ audiences and creative partners.
As one of the leading presenters in the nation, Washington Performing Arts embraces a broad spectrum of the performing arts, including classical music, jazz, gospel, contemporary dance and music, international music and art forms, and new work. Dynamic education programs in the public schools and beyond are hallmarks of Washington Performing Arts, as are the Embassy Adoption Program and two resident gospel choirs.
In the 2012/13 season, Washington Performing Arts was twice honored for its work at the intersection of arts presenting and education: by President Barack Obama with a National Medal of Arts (becoming only the fourth D.C.-based arts group and the first arts presenter of its kind to be so honored), and the Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Service to the Arts.
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