PIANO SUPERSTAR EMANUEL AX JOINS THE ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC

World Premiere by American Composer Lisa Bielawa

Emanuel Ax for TNEW

(November 10, 2016, Orlando, FL) – The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra will be joined by seven-time Grammy winner and piano superstar Emanuel Ax on December 3 at 8 p.m. and December 4 at 2 p.m. Both concerts will be lead by Music Director Eric Jacobsen and will be held at Bob Carr Theater, 401 W. Livingston Street, Orlando, Florida.

This will be Emanuel Ax’s first time performing with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for audience members to hear a performance from a world-class musician of his caliber. Ax will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonic. He has also performed numerous times with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman and is currently on tour in Europe.

“There is no greater ambassador of the piano than the soulful, virtuosic, brilliant and joyous Emanuel Ax,” said Music Director Eric Jacobsen. “To hear him play is to smile and cry and live. I think my favorite facet of Ax’s playing is his humane empathy. He feels, so we feel! The Orlando Philharmonic can’t wait to make music with such a world-renowned artist!”

This concert will also feature the Philharmonic in the world premiere of American composer Lisa Bielawa’s Drama/Self Pity for orchestra. Bielawa is a composer-vocalist and is an active participant in the New York music scene. She and Jacobsen worked together on her latest album, The Lay of the Love, released on Innova in June 2015.

“I’ve had the honor and pleasure of collaborating with Eric Jacobsen in many fulfilling musical contexts over the course of more than 10 years, but this opportunity to enter into the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra community for the first time, with a world premiere, is especially exciting,” said Bielawa. “I’ve created a work for this concert that is playful and bold, to honor both the lighthearted and the dramatic sensibilities of the composers whose works we will hear in this program, and to celebrate this musical friendship – and extend it to a new musical family!”