An Afternoon of Beethoven
with Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax
A Benefit Concert for Spa Little Theater
“This starry duo has made music together for decades. … Their intimacy is always evident, in the balance and flow, in the equality of the musical partnership, in the willingness to take risks in Beethoven’s revolutionary silences and outbursts.”—The Guardian
Join the two most celebrated musicians of a generation, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax, as they make a rare duo performance in the wonderfully intimate, 500-seat Spa Little Theater.
The longtime friends and collaborators will perform a selection of Beethoven Sonatas from their 2022 Album “Hope Amid Tears: Beethoven Cello Sonatas” which garnered them a GRAMMY™ for best Chamber Music Performance.
On performing the sonatas, Ax states “It has been a true privilege to live with this music for over 40 years. Each time that Yo-Yo and I have come back to work on these sonatas, we have found new meaning and new ways of realizing the notes on the page. Fortunately for us, there are so many ways of experiencing them, and finally the music itself is so uplifting that every attempt, whether good or bad, is a joy. I hope we can share with you our awe for Beethoven and our deep love for his vision.”
Proceeds from the performance will go toward establishing a programming fund for the Spa Little Theater, SPAC’s year-round performance home. Since reopening in the fall of 2022, SPAC has presented year-round programming in this unique and intimate space, bringing the best in music, theater and dance to our region and welcoming artists from around the world. The theater has also served as a hub for SPAC’s ever-expanding education programming and School of the Arts, allowing the children and adults from across the Capital Region the opportunity to experience the power of the arts first-hand.
Tickets are $500, of which $150 is a tax-deductible donation.
Program
Selections will be announced from the stage
Performers
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello
Emanuel Ax, Piano
Yo-Yo Ma
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 19 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.
Emanuel Ax
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. In the 2024/25 he will appear as guest soloist during the New York Philharmonic’s opening week which will mark his 47th annual visit to the orchestra. He will return to the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, National, San Diego, Nashville and Pittsburgh symphonies and Rochester Philharmonic. A fall recital tour will culminate in the spring in Chicago and his annual Carnegie Hall appearance. Additional performances include a special project in duo with clarinetist Anthony McGill, chamber music with Itzhak Perlman and Friends, and an extensive European tour.
Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987 and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Kavakos and Ma, the trio launched a multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first three discs have been released. He has received GRAMMY® Awards for his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas and for recordings with Yo-Yo Ma. In the 2004/05 season Mr. Ax contributed to an International EMMY® Award-Winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust. In 2013, Mr. Ax received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year. Mr. 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.