An Evening with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma

Longtime friends and collaborators for decades - most recently in their Beethoven For Three series with Leonidas Kavakos - Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma bring their extraordinary musical partnership to the recital stage


Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed by the Avery Fisher Prize, and was named the Musical America Artist of the Year for 2026. 2025/26 season highlights include The Philadelphia Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and a tour to Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong. Following the world premiere at Tanglewood in summer 2025, the concerto written for him by John Williams had its Boston Symphony subscription debut in January followed by the NY premiere with New York Philharmonic. He will return to orchestras in Dallas, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Madison, Naples and New Jersey.

In recital he can be heard in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Santa Barbara, Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Schenectady and Princeton. A European tour will include concerts in Munich, Prague, Berlin, Rome and Torino. Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. He launched a multi-year project with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies of which the first four discs have been released. He 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.


Yo-Yo Ma's multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture's power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing communities together to explore culture's role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity. Most recently, Yo-Yo began Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Our Common Nature follows the Bach Project, a 36 community, six-continent tour of J. S. Bach's cello suites paired with local cultural programming. Both endeavors reflect Yo-Yo's lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to understand how music helps us to imagine and build a stronger society. Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, where he began studying the cello with his father at age four.

When he was seven, he moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies before pursuing a liberal arts education. Yo-Yo has recorded more than 120 albums, is the winner of 20 Grammy Awards, and has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden's inauguration. He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He has been a UN Messenger of Peace since 2006, and was recognized as one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.


Run time approximately 80 minutes, with no intermission


There are no Group discounts for this show


Discounted STUDENT tickets in the Rear Balcony are available at the Box Office only with a recent, valid Student ID


There is a ticketed pre-show Food and Beverage Experience. Please add it to your cart if you'd like to attend.




*Seats in the Mezzanine & Balcony of the Mortensen Hall involve stairs and are not accessible. If you have wheelchair/accessible needs or questions, please call the Box Office: 860-987-5900


*If you select the Mobile ticket delivery on your order, please note that you must upload them to a digital wallet. They cannot be scanned or printed.