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• A successful collaboration A successful collaboration Emanuel Ax finds teaching protege Orion Weiss 'rewarding' It must have been destiny in 1996 when pianist Emanuel Ax, who was in town for a concert with the Cleveland Orchestra, dropped in at the Cleveland Institute of Music to give a master class. Orion Weiss, a 14-year-old piano student in the institute's young artists program, stepped up to play some Chopin etudes for the famous visitor. "It was scary," Weiss says today. "I remember I stayed home from school that day to practice.” Ax, who besides pursuing a celebrity career has heard plenty of pianists in his day, has a more detailed recollection. The friendly encounter, he says, went like this: "Orion, hi, nice to meet you. What would you like to play?" "I can play Chopin etudes, I guess." "Well, which ones would you like to play?" "I play them all." All 24 etudes at age 14, Ax thought: pretty unusual. So he said, "OK, why don't you start?" The first two etudes are all but impossible to play, Ax says. All the more reason why he couldn't believe what he heard when Weiss started with them. "It wasn't even a question of precocity," Ax says, "because it was so accomplished -- it was so brilliant. So I just thought, 'This is phenomenal.’” Four years later Weiss became Ax's only student. For the last three years they have worked together in New York City, where Ax lives and Weiss is beginning his fourth and last year in a bachelor’s program at the Juilliard School. This summer they continued the collaboration at Tanglewood, where Ax has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra most summers since 1978 and is on the piano faculty. Weiss came for the first time as a student. "He's my hero," says Weiss. "He’s so kind and forthright and honest -- don’t get me started.” Tanglewood is not Ax's only Berkshire connection. Two years ago he and his wife, Yoko Nozaki, built a house on land they own on East Alford Road in West Stockbridge. It's only a summer and weekend home now. But Ax has a grander design. Though he's a city boy and would need a small apartment in New York to visit friends and attend concerts, he’d like to make West Stockbridge his primary home. "The thing is," he says, "I can work anywhere.” All he needs is a piano and an airport nearby, which Albany and Hartford readily provide. And with the children, Joseph, 24, and Sarah, 20, gone from home, he's "pushing” for the move. Ax joins his friend and frequent recital partner, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, as a Berkshire part-timer. Ma, who lives in Cambridge, built a country home in Tyringham around the same time as Ax built his. From time to time during the colder months, they get together for dinner in the hills. "We both just love it here, so we're going to try and spend more and more time here, work up here, rehearse up here," Ax says. The 54-year-old teacher, who was born in Poland, and the 21-year-old protege spoke in separate interviews before leaving Tanglewood. So close have they become that they even sound a little alike: self-effacing and somewhat boyishly shy. After the master class in Cleveland, they said, they kept in touch via e-mail and an occasional lunch when Ax was in Cleveland to perform. When Weiss was thinking about college, he knew whom he wanted to study with: Emanuel Ax. His teacher at the Cleveland Institute, Paul Schenly, who was acquainted with Ax, called him and asked if he would take on the young man. "And he said 'Sure,'" Weiss recalled. "So I applied only to Juilliard. And I figured if I didn’t make it, I would just hang around and try again.” One attempt was enough. "I was so lucky that he remembered me from the master class and that he was willing to teach me," said Weiss.
Both Weiss and Ax credit Schenly with pointing them in the right direction. "It's rare, when you have a really good teacher, that they’re not possessive of their students," said Weiss. "Mr. Schenly could have said he wanted me to continue studying with him. But he wanted me to go to New York and study with Mr. Ax. I was so lucky to have a teacher like that.” Ax remembers a word of advice from Schenly: "Look, if you want to him to study pieces, don't ever give him a piece at a time, because he gets bored. If you want him to study Beethoven sonatas, give him three, so then he can really practice." Weiss is one of 15 piano students in his class at Juilliard. He and Ax have two or three lessons a month, which Weiss describes as "plenty for me." If Ax is gone for a lengthy concert tour, Weiss gets lessons from other distinguished pianists on the faculty. Ax and his fellow piano teacher Ursula Oppens arranged for Weiss' acceptance at Tanglewood, where he was one of six piano students in a program that emphasizes chamber music. (A separate program trains pianists as vocal accompanists and coaches. ) Since Ax knew him, Weiss didn’t have to audition. As part of his studies, Weiss played the 24 Chopin preludes for Ax -- a feat comparable to playing the 24 etudes. Ax, a veteran chamber player, also coached a student group with Weiss as the pianist for a concert performance of a Dvorak trio. Under the tutelage of James Sommerville, the BSO's principal hornist, Weiss also took part in a performance of Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto. Ax said he loves teaching but can't take more than one student at a time. "I think it's very unfair to students not to be around all the time. So if you have one student, you can always fit in a lesson, because you come back from a trip and you can say, 'Okay, I’ll see Orion for a couple of hours this afternoon.’ "If you have a few students, you really need a couple of days. I don't think it’s right to leave people on their own and not give them enough time. And it’s not just the lesson time. It’s also just talking and working out things like where should I play, what program should I do, examinations, extra preparations for juries -- all kinds of things." "Kids like Orion," he added, "are a reward for being around in music.” Weiss and Ax aren't sure what happens after graduation next spring. But both assume they’ll continue the relationship, as Ax has with previous students after their graduation. Weiss thinks he might go on for a master’s at Juilliard. Meanwhile, he has professional management with IMG Artists, a leading firm, and will embark on a recital tour through the South in November. He doesn't know the cities or towns he’ll perform in. Management worries about those things, he said. "I practice my music, and I go and play." Weiss is the same age as Lang Lang, the Chinese-born pianist who is already a sensation through media attention and concerts like his debut with the BSO at Tanglewood last month. Comparing the two pianists, Ax says it's unimportant that Weiss is still a beginner on the concert circuit. "Everybody makes his path differently, I think," Ax says. "A lot of it just has to do with luck, serendipity. I think he's so good that down the road he’s going to be somebody well-known and recognized and respected.” To which Weiss merely says: "A mixture of luck and hard work seems to be working for me." |
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