Pianist Emanuel Ax joins Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in UF concert

February 16, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform with pianist Emanuel Ax at 7:30 p.m. March 3 at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Florida campus.

Ax captured the public’s attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. A year later, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and, just four years after that, took the coveted Avery Fischer Prize.

Ax, who has been an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist since 1987, is renowned not only for his poetic temperament and unsurpassed virtuosity, but also for the exceptional breadth of this performing activity. He has appeared with a number of orchestras around the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. In the 2004-05 season, Ax contributed to a BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. He is a Grammy award-winning artist and has performed with such other distinguished musicians as Yo-Yo Ma.

The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra presented its first concerts in 1945. In the more than 60 years since, the ASO has grown from a local group to one of America’s major orchestras.

Each season, the ASO performs more than 200 concerts to a combined audience estimated at over a half-million. Besides its 72 concert main subscription season, the ASO presents light classical concerts, family concerts, annual summer festivals, outdoor summer pops concerts and free concerts in city parks. Recordings by the ASO have drawn international praise, winning awards from Audio Excellence, as well as Gramophone and Ovation magazines and 18 Grammy awards.

Tickets are available by calling the Phillips Center Box Office at (352) 392-2787 or (800) 905-2787 or by calling Ticketmaster at (904) 353-3309. Orders may be faxed to (352) 846-1562. Tickets are also available at the Phillips Center Box Office, University Box Office at the University of Florida Reitz Student Union and all Ticketmaster outlets; and on the Web at www.ticketmaster.com.

The Phillips Center Box Office is open from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and two hours before performances.