The Juilliard School

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Reflections

Pianist, faculty member, and Juilliard alumnus Emanuel Ax is a seven-time Grammy Award-winning artist with an international career that has brought acclaim in equal measure for his orchestral, chamber, and recital performances. Born in Lvov, Poland, Ax and his family migrated to Canada in 1959 when he was just 10 years old. Two years later, the family moved to New York, where Ax has been reaching new heights ever since. Studying at Juilliard, he was highly influenced by his teacher, Mieczyslaw Munz. Ax is known for his brilliant technique and poetic lyricism, all of which can be heard in his many recordings for RCA and, since 1987, exclusively for Sony Classical. He has performed with many artists, including Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Peter Serkin, Isaac Stern, Young Uck Kim, and Yo-Yo Ma, whose collaborative recordings won several Grammys. Ax has also earned many awards since the age of 25, including the Rubinstein Competition in 1974, the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists in 1975, and the Avery Fisher Prize in 1979.

Yoko and Emanuel Ax

Ax's wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki Ax, is also an accomplished chamber musician. Born in Tokyo, she attended the Toho School of Music prior to her family's move to the United States when she was 12. She entered Juilliard in 1966, won the Concert Artists Guild Award in 1970, and made her New York debut in 1972. She has been featured at the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Ojai, Blossom, and Tanglewood Festivals. Nozaki Ax has also been a featured soloist with the Brandenburg Ensemble and, like her husband, is a featured guest artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In addition to her work as a performer, she is the director of the Music Plant, a Japanese-based label.

In the wake of their acclaimed duo-piano concert at Carnegie Hall in 1996, Ax and Nozaki have performed together as part of the Distinguished Artist Series at the 92nd Street Y and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and have been duo-soloists with the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Minnesota, Detroit, and Cleveland. They currently live in New York with their two children, Joseph and Sarah. Emanuel and Yoko graciously agreed to answer a few questions about their days at Juilliard.

What do you recall about your student days at Juilliard?

YOKO: I look back on my years at Juilliard with a mixture of happy feelings and a certain amount of regret. Having come to New York from my sheltered family life at age 18, I was fairly insecure and attached myself to a group of friends who were intent on having a good time but were not focused on their studies. So I feel I wasted a couple of important years instead of taking advantage of what Juilliard had to offer. Things got better after meeting my future husband, who was talented, focused, and liked hard work. He is still the same way.

EMANUEL: Juilliard is not like a regular college, but perhaps more like schools in England such as Oxford or Cambridge, where you've already decided what field you're going into. You go there in order to train in very specific areas, and probably not to discover which areas you'll be interested in—although that may happen. I think of it as the place that allows you to become more of what you are, more of what you'd like to be. For me, the defining thing about Juilliard is that you make lifelong friends. There are so many people we went to school with whom we're in touch with every day.

What teacher at Juilliard made the largest impact on you?

YOKO AND EMANUEL: Outside of our major teachers, Irwin Freundlich and Mieczyslaw Munz, Felix Galimir, our chamber music teacher, made the biggest impact on both of us. He taught us for many years, and we learned a really important thing: how important it is to listen all the time as you play. Listening carefully is the way to improve yourself.

What would you say to a prospective student who wasn't sure about attending?

YOKO: I would probably say that unless you are absolutely certain, you should think about another place. Juilliard can be very scary at the beginning, and also New York can be intimidating—although after a while, I think both the city and the School are wonderful.

If you could go back in time and change one thing about your years at Juilliard, what would it be?

YOKO: I think I would attend many more concerts than I did because I feel that hearing other musicians, especially great pianists, is the best way to learn and to improve.

EMANUEL: I guess I would have liked to live on my own, rather than at home. That really was not possible, because of money—we were lucky to be living in New York as a family—but I missed a lot of the fun one could have living as a college student. I think especially now, with the residence hall in the Rose Building, Juilliard is a really great place for a music education, and not only for performers.

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