The UNLV Performing Arts Center welcomes sought-after GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist Emanuel Ax to Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 20. His mix of technical precision and lustrous lyricism has earned him a reputation as one of the most beloved concert pianists of our time.
The New York Times raved, “Ax … played with youthful brio, incisive rhythm, bountiful imagination, delicacy,” while the Seattle Times extolled, Ax “...has a way of seeming to enfold every listener in a metaphorical embrace.”
One of the most prolific and widely respected concert pianists in modern symphonic music, Ax's crisp moves from fast, bombastic stretches to slow, contemplative passages deftly interpreting Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and others. He has worked with orchestras in L.A., Boston, Atlanta, New York, Nashville, and Montreal. He has recorded more than 20 discs for RCA records and has been an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist since 1987.
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. In the 2004/05 season Ax 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, Ax’s recording “Variations,” received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music/Piano). He was also the winner of the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1974, the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists in 1975, and the Avery Fisher Prize in 1979.
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.
Tickets are $20-$50 each (discounts may be available) and may be purchased by telephone at 702-895-ARTS (2787), online, or at the PAC box office from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. When purchasing tickets, consider donating to the Performing Arts Center to provide local students the opportunity to work with all the outstanding artists.
The Performing Arts Center is hosting this concert in honor of Charles Vanda, who served as director of concert hall programming and then director of the UNLV Performing Arts Center from 1975 until he died in 1988. Vanda wrote and produced radio and television programs and was a colonel in with Army Intelligence during World War II, then led the Hollywood office of the J. Walter Thompson Agency before coming to UNLV.
Executive Director Lori Cobo and the staff at the UNLV Performing Arts Center dedicate this concert to the memory of local arts patron Bernice Fischer, who passed away in November 2022. Her love for the arts in Las Vegas and her joyous spirit will be missed.
The Performing Arts Center at UNLV is participating in Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6), the most comprehensive economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry ever conducted in the United States. Administered by Americans for the Arts, AEP6 will examine the economic impact of the arts and culture in Clark County and 386 additional communities representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Concertgoers will be able to complete a survey to assist in this study of the economy and the arts in Clark County.
When visiting the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall to see Emmanuel Ax, be sure to check out the free and special exhibit featuring 12 pieces of art from the collection of artist and beloved UNLV professor, Rita Deanin Abbey, located in the lobby of the concert hall.
About the PAC
The UNLV Performing Arts Center is the original home for the arts in Southern Nevada; it opened in 1976 and celebrates its 46th season in 2022-2023. It hosts a variety of performances and events and is home to self-produced events plus productions of the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, UNLV School of Music, UNLV Dance, and the Las Vegas Men’s Chorus, among many other community arts presenters. The UNLV PAC also hosts various Clark County School District fine arts festivals and concerts. Visit pac.unlv.edu.
