Camilla Tilling, soprano
Emanuel Ax, piano
Union College

Praised for her “beguiling tone and unfailing musicality” (Gramophone, 2020), Swedish-native Camilla Tilling has been performing on the world’s leading opera, concert and recital stages for over two decades while building an impressive discography that includes Die Schöpfung with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Bernard Haitink, a portrait album of Gluck & Mozart Arias and numerous recitals on the BIS label dedicated to the Lieder of Schubert and Strauss, among others.

In the upcoming 2022/23 season, Tilling undertakes a typically varied schedule across Europe and North America including the premiere of Daniel Nelson’s Chaplin Songs with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Manze, Bill Barclay’s semi-staging of Grieg’s Peer Gynt with Cincinnati Symphony under Louis Langrée and a programme featuring Irgen-Jensens' Japanischer Frühling alongside Mahler’s Symphony No.4 with Christian Blex and the Karajan-Akademie of Berliner Philharmoniker. She joins Nathalie Stutzman and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Gianandrea Noseda and Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Centre for Beethoven Symphony No.9and David Danzmayr and Oregon Symphony Orchestra for Osvaldo Golijov Three Songs. A consummate recitalist, Camilla Tilling presents her new programme ‘Jenny Lind: Love and Lieder’ inspired by the Swedish Nightingale herself at Spivey Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Gothenburg Opera and Schloss Elmau.

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. Later 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, Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) at Covent Garden, l'Ange (Saint François d'Assise) for Dutch National Opera, both Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro) at Royal Swedish Opera, and Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) at Teatro Real Madrid, Semperoper Dresden, Finnish National Opera and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The 2021/22 season saw her as Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue in a staging by Alex Ollé, conducted by Juanjo Mena at Madrid’s Teatro Real and as Puccini’s Suor Angelica at Royal Swedish Opera.

A prolific concert performer, highlights of recent seasons include Mahler Symphony No.4under Gustavo Dudamel with both Het Concertgebouw Orkest and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with Esa-Pekka Salonen and London Philharmonia, Dutilleux’s Correspondances with Orchestre national de France/Omer Meir Welber and Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder with London Symphony Orchestra/François-Xavier Roth.

Tilling was a soloist in Bernard Haitink’s historic final concert with Radio Filharmonish Orkest at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw after a long collaboration which included her first performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Teatro alla Scala and she 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.

Born to Polish parents in what is today Lyvov, Ukrain, 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.

In fall 2021 he resumed a post-COVID touring schedule that included concerts with the Colorado, Pacific, Cincinnati and Houston symphonies as well as Minnesota, Los Angeles, New York Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. 2022/23 will include a tour with Itzhak Perlman "and Friends" and a continuation of the "Beethoven For 3" touring and recording project with partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, this year on the west coast.

In recital he can be heard in Palm Beach, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington DC, Houston, Las Vegas and New York and with orchestras in Atlanta, Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Naples, Portland OR, Toronto, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Touring in Europe in the fall and spring includes concerts in Germany, UK, Switzerland and France.

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.