Ax Plays Beethoven

Hailed as “boldly evocative,” Fabien Gabel is internationally recognized as one of the stars of a new generation of conductors, having established a broad repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to contemporary music and lesser-known works by French composers. He has been the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec (OSQ) since 2012 and music director of the innovative Orchestre Français des Jeunes since 2017.

Fabien’s 2019-20 season features debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, and Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. In his eighth season with the OSQ, he leads the orchestra in works by Chausson, Ravel, Duparc, Dutilleux, Aubert, Schmitt, Dubugnon, Rebel, Tomasi, and Poulenc; and collaborates with world-class soloists, including Augustin Hadelich, Juho Pohjonen, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Michael Barenboim, Ana María Martínez, Philippe Jaroussky, and others. He returns to conduct the Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

His conducting has taken him across the globe to lead top orchestras and work with the world’s most formidable soloists. Fabien first attracted international attention in 2004 winning the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, which subsequently led to his appointment as the London Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor for two seasons. The LSO has since regularly engaged him as a guest conductor.

Born in Paris into a family of accomplished musicians, Fabien began studying trumpet at age 6, honing his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, which awarded him a First Prize in trumpet in 1996, and later at the Musik Hochschule of Karlsruhe. He went on to play in several Parisian orchestras under the direction of prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, and Bernard Haitink. In 2002, Fabien pursued his interest in conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with David Zinman, who invited him to appear as a guest conductor at the Festival in 2009. He has worked as an assistant to Haitink and Davis.

Born in modern day Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at The Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. He captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

Highlights of the 2019–20 season include a European summer festivals tour with the Vienna Philharmonic and long-time collaborative partner Bernard Haitink, an Asian tour with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, U.S. concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Lahav Shani in addition to three concerts with regular partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall in March 2020. Further participation in Carnegie Hall’s celebration of Beethoven’s 250^th birthday will culminate in a solo recital in May preceded by recitals in Madison, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Washington, Las Vegas, and Colorado Springs. With orchestra, he can be heard in Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. In Europe, he performs with orchestras in London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Rome, Zurich, Rotterdam, and Tel Aviv.

Always a committed exponent of contemporary composers, with works written for him by John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof Penderecki, Bright Sheng, and Melinda Wagner already in his repertoire, most recently, he has added HK Gruber’s Piano Concerto and Samuel Adams’ Impromptus.

A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, he has recently recorded Mendelssohn’s Piano Trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. He has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas and for a series of recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

He lives in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki. They have two children together, Joseph and Sarah. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, Yale University, and Columbia University.

A native of New York City, Nick Eanet has earned a reputation as a master violinist, musician, and teacher. He is in great demand as a soloist, concertmaster, chamber music performer, and teacher. Eanet has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School, Harvard University, North Carolina School of the Arts, and has given masterclasses all over the globe. His playing is hailed as “brilliant and passionate” by the New York Times.

Eanet’s exposure to solo work began when he was very young. At the age of eight he was invited by Zubin Mehta to appear as soloist with the New York Philharmonic. Two years later, he again performed a series of concerts as soloist with the New York Philharmonic and was invited to play at their New Year’s Eve gala concert. Eanet has since performed as soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra led by James Levine at Carnegie Hall, the Minnesota Orchestra with Sir Neville Marriner, and again with the New York Philharmonic.

Appointed by James Levine in 1999 at the age of 27, Eanet was the senior concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra through 2014. During his tenure with the orchestra, Eanet regularly performed across Europe and Japan, and appeared in orchestral and chamber music concerts at all three venues at Carnegie Hall.

As former leader and first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, Eanet performed in all the famous concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. The Juilliard String Quartet has been in residence at The Juilliard School since 1946 and has mentored nearly every major American string quartet and has commissioned hundreds of new works. Eanet is currently very involved in teaching violin and chamber music, and spends his summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, working with some of the greatest young musicians from around the world.

Eanet began his violin studies at the age of three with Nicole DiCecco, and was quickly an avid chamber musician, playing string quartets by the age of five. When he was eleven, his string quartet was invited to perform in Matsumoto, Japan, by Shinichi Suzuki. At the age of twelve, he was admitted to The Juilliard School Pre-College where he studied with Dorothy DeLay, continuing at the college level with DeLay and Robert Mann. Immediately after graduating from Juilliard, Eanet joined the Mendelssohn String Quartet as leader and first violinist. During his years with the Mendelssohn String Quartet, Eanet performed around the world in major venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

In 2011, Eanet was honored to receive a Grammy award for lifetime achievement.