Camilla Tilling, soprano
Emanuel Ax, piano
Union College

Undoubtedly one of Sweden’s most remarkable voices, Camilla Tilling’s beguiling tone and unfailing musicality have secured her position as a firm favorite with conductors, audiences, and critics alike across a career that has now spanned more than two decades. She has been a steady presence on the world’s leading opera, concert, and recital stages while simultaneously building an impressive discography that includes orchestral works by Haydn with Bernard Haitink, Handel and Purcell with Emmanuelle Haïm, Grieg with Paavo Järvi, Brahms with Marek Janowski, and Cherubini with Riccardo Muti in addition to recital collections of Gluck, Mozart, Strauss, Schumann, Grieg, and many other composers.

Tilling stands out as one of the world’s most sought-after concert performers, collaborating regularly with today's foremost conductors including recent appearances under Gustavo Dudamel with both Het Concertgebouw Orkest and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, under Esa-Pekka Salonen with London Philharmonia Orchestra in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, with Gianandrea Noseda and Washington National Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with Omer Meir Welber and Orchestre national de France in Dutilleux’s Correspondances, and under François-Xavier Roth with London Symphony Orchestra in Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder. Tilling has toured extensively in Peter Sellar’s stagings of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion with Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, and she enjoyed an enduring collaboration with the late Sir Bernard Haitink under whose baton she sang her first Beethoven Missa Solemnis at Teatro alla Scala and was the Strauss soprano of choice for his historic final concerts with Radio Filharmonish Orkest at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in 2019. 

Early operatic roles such as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Ilia (Idomeneo), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) gave Tilling debuts at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro alla Scala, and The Metropolitan Opera.  More recent highlights include the Governess (The Turn of the Screw) at Glyndebourne Festival, Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) at Salzburg Mozartwoche, Donna Clara (Der Zwerg) at Bayerische Staatsoper, Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue at Madrid’s Teatro Real, and Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), Suor Angelica, and Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro) at Royal Swedish Opera. As Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) Tilling is in regular demand with recent productions at Teatro Real Madrid, Semperoper Dresden, Finnish National Opera, and with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Last season Camilla Tilling expanded her already extensive and varied repertoire with the premiere of Daniel Nelson’s Chaplin Songs with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Manze, Osvaldo Golijov’s Three Songs with David Danzmayr conducting the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, and Irgen-Jensens' song cycle Japanischer Frühling with Christian Blex and Karajan-Akademie of Berliner Philharmoniker, a work she repeats in the current season under Tabita Berglund with Kristiansand Symfoniorkester. Elsewhere in the current season, Camilla Tilling’s varied commitments include a recital collaboration with renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, presenting her Swedish Nightingale program "Jenny Lind: Love and Lieder" at Performance Santa Fe, The Isabel Bader Center for Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario, and with Capital Region Classical; performances of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass under the baton of Rafael Payare with Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Perry So and Navarra Symphony Orchestra, and Mendelssohn’s oratorio Paulus with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de Espana under Masaaki Suzuki.

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.

The 23-24 Season focuses on the world premiere of Anders Hillborg’s piano concerto, commissioned for him by the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen with subsequent performances in Stockholm and New York. A continuation of the "Beethoven For 3" touring and recording project with partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma will take them to the midwest in January. In recital, Mr. Ax can be heard on the west coast in the fall and midwest/east coast in the spring, culminating at Carnegie Hall in April. An extensive European tour will include concerts in Holland, Italy, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic.

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 an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies arranged for trio of which the first two discs have recently been released. 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 cellist 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 www.EmanuelAx.com.