THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Internationally renowned pianist and recent winner of Musical America Awards’ ‘2026 Artist of the Year’ EMANUEL AX to perform at Nocturne XXIII, MASNO’s annual gala, on Sunday, October 25, 2026
Our 2026 Nocturne gala fundraiser, again held at the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, promises to be another unforgettable evening! This beautiful celebration of the piano offers the opportunity to hear one of the world’s greatest pianists in an intimate concert setting while gathering with other music lovers and musicians in support of programs that help educate and nurture young pianists. In addition to Mr. Ax’s full concert performance, Nocturne will include a festive champagne reception and a multi-course seated dinner.
SCHEDULE OF THE EVENING
5:00 pm – Champagne Reception with passed hors d’oeurvres
6:00 pm – Recital of Emanuel Ax
8:00 pm – Multi-course seated dinner
PROGRAM
Franz Schubert – Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 664
Franz Schubert – 4 Impromptus D. 935
Intermission
Frédéric Chopin – Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61
Frédéric Chopin Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60
Frédéric Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 1
Frédéric Chopin Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 31
Mr. Ax’s performance is being underwritten by The Gauthier Family Foundation in honor of Jane and Vince Bernard.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
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 four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize. Emanuel Ax was recently named the 2026 Musical America Artist of the Year.
As Artist in Residence for the 2026/2027 season with Radio France, the season begins with a European tour with performances in Munich, Paris, and Amsterdam. Upon returning to North America, Ax will embark on a series of concerts with The Knights with the final performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. An avid collaborator, Mr. Ax’s season will also include chamber music with long-term musical colleagues and friends, Yo-Yo Ma (in Hartford, Philadelphia, East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Chappel Hill and Winona) and Itzhak Perlman (in Philadelphia, Akron, and Detroit). He will return to North American orchestras in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Lincoln, Irvine, Portland, Seattle, Sarasota, Mobile, and New Albany. In recital he can be heard in Omaha, Palm Beach, New Orleans, Ridgefield, La Jolla, San Francisco, Schenectady, Rochester, and at Carnegie Hall. An extensive European tour will include concerts in London, Oslo, Madrid, Dresden, Prague, Monte Carlo, and Milan.
Three years in the making, Joseph Levy’s “All the Music in the World”, a documentary film following Mr. Ax on tour including interviews with his many artistic partners will be premiered at DOC NYC this fall.
“Classical Music Happy Hour”, the podcast launched by WQXR NY in 2026 hosted by “Manny” Ax received such acclaim that a new season is in preparation for 2027.
Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987 and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first four discs have been released with the fifth arriving this fall. He has received GRAMMY® Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of GRAMMY-winning recordings with Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. In the 2004/05 season Mr. Ax contributed to an International EMMY® Award-Winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, Mr. Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music/Piano).
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. For more information about Mr. Ax’s career, please visit EmanuelAx.com.
GALA COMMITTEE
Chairpersons: Paige Bennett-Primke and Trey Cassels
Committee Members: Brian Baudot, Jason Burge, Louise Bush, Sibby Charbonnet, Catherine Davidson, Robert Edgecombe, Rosalind Hinton, Anne Sumich, Terry Voorhies, Cara McCool Woolf, Qifan Wu, Victoria Zangara
NOCTURNE XXIII is presented with generous support from:
Trey Cassels and Elder Gwin, Bruce and Robin Crutcher, Sarah and Robert Edgecombe, Susan and Robert Edgecombe, Jr., The Gauthier Family Foundation, Rosalind Hinton and Tamara Kreinin, Lexus of New Orleans, Beth and Leo Landry, Paige and Thorben Primke, Richard Goula and The Thistlewood Foundation, The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, Steinway & Sons, Steinway Piano Gallery of New Orleans, Victoria Z Photography, Terry and Rand Voorhies, WWNO Classical Network
BECOME A SPONSOR!
Support the work of MASNO by sponsoring NOCTURNE XXIII. VIEW NOCTURNE SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION HERE.
For additional information regarding Sponsorships, please contact Cara McCool Woolf at director@masno.org.