ICM Artists
Emanuel Ax's recent releases have included a Grammy-
award winning album of Haydn Piano Sonatas, the two
Liszt concertos paired with the Schoenberg Concerto,
three solo Brahms albums and an album of tangos by
Astor Piazzolla. But he still enjoys live performances best.

A dynamic piano duo

EMANUEL AX & YOKO NOZAKI

In concert: 4 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Venue: Blaisdell Concert Hall
Program: "Piano Duo Extraordinaire," featuring Strauss' "Burleske for Piano, Op. 11"; Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, No. 10, K. 365; Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40"
Conducting: Samuel Wong
Tickets: $15-$50; 100 $7.50 seats sold concert day
Call: 538-8863

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

It's nice to hear that one of the best known and most highly regarded musicians in the world is still enjoying his craft after some four decades as a performer.

Pianist Emanuel Ax, acclaimed for his poetic lyricism and brilliant technique, and who has partnered with other revered musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo, will play in Honolulu with his all-time favorite partner: wife Yoko Nozaki.

"How wonderful it is to play with someone you feel very close to," said Ax, 49, said in a telephone interview from Japan. "I usually only play with very close friends anyway, and this is about as close a friend that you can find."

But doesn't all that time together make for disagreements?

"We get along very well," he said. "Pianists don't argue too much generally because we have such a hard time just getting things right; arguing is for string players."

Ax's career has included many prestigious prizes, performances with every major symphony orchestra, countless recitals and a catalogue of successful recordings. He appears regularly at festivals internationally.

"Performing remains enormously fun for me and in some ways is becoming even more fun," said Ax, who practices as much as three hours a day. "The more you learn about a subject like music, the more possibilities there are. And how lucky am I to be in a profession where I never have to think about retiring, but can play music forever."

Ax captured public attention in 1974 when, at age 25, he won the First Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and four years later took the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

A recording contract followed, and many of his more than 20 albums became best sellers and won top honors. Ax was also featured on the soundtrack to the film "Immortal Beloved."

But live performances are a favorite. "Everyone is different and that's great," he said. "You anticipate something happening that has never happened before. Sometimes it's very exciting; sometimes very scary."

Ax, who lives in New York City, was born in Lvov, Poland. He moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. He is a graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in French.

Yoko Nozaki was born in Tokyo, receiving her first piano lessons from her mother at age 3. At age 12 her family moved to the United States, where she, too, would study at the Juilliard School.

The couple's performance goals are the same, Ax said: "To involve the audience in something that you very deeply love."

"To bring that across to people makes you a good artist," he said. "If the audience walks out of a concert thinking, 'What a wonderful experience,' then we have done our job."

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