Background
Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, (then in the USSR) to Joachim and Hellen Ax, both Nazi concentration camp survivors. Ax began to study piano at the age of six. His father was his first piano teacher.
music educator musician pianist
Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, (then in the USSR) to Joachim and Hellen Ax, both Nazi concentration camp survivors. Ax began to study piano at the age of six. His father was his first piano teacher.
When he was seven the family moved to Warsaw, Poland (where he studied piano playing at Miodowa school) and then two years later to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where he continued to study music, including as a member of The Junior Musical Club of Winnipeg.
He is an internationally acclaimed performer, and a teacher on the faculty of the Juilliard School. In 1961 the family moved to New York City and Ax continued his studies at the Juilliard School under Mieczysław Munz. In 1970 he received his B.A. in French at Columbia University and became an American citizen.
Ax is a particular supporter of contemporary composers and has given three world premieres in the last few seasons. Century Rolls by John Adams, Seeing by Christopher Rouse and Red Silk Dance by Bright Sheng. He also performs works by such diverse figures as Sir Michael Tippett, Hans Werner Henze, Joseph Schwantner and Paul Hindemith, as well as more traditional composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin.
They have recorded much of the cello/piano repertoire together. Ax also played quartets briefly with Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo. Before the quartet had to disband in 2001 due to the death of Stern, they recorded works for Sony by Brahms, Fauré, Beethoven, Schumann and Mozart.
Ax is also a featured guest artist in a documentary film about the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, Five Days in September. The Rebirth of an Orchestra. In 1997, Ax was the Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival alongside the conductor Daniel Harding.
He holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale University (awarded in May 2007) and Columbia University. He is a recipient of Yale University's Sanford Medal. 1974 - Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Married Yoko Nozaki, November 23, 1974. 2 children.