Tanglewood Partners with Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center and DOC NYC for Co-World Premiere Screening of All the Music in the World, a Documentary Film About Piano Virtuoso Emanuel Ax

Tanglewood, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, and DOC NYC proudly present the co-world premiere of All the Music in the World, a documentary film celebrating one of the world’s greatest pianists, Emanuel Ax. Director Joseph Levy follows Ax, a celebrated virtuoso still contending with stage fright, as he embarks on his 50th year of performing while wrestling with the idea of stepping away from the spotlight.  The screening of the feature-length (83 minutes) film takes place on Sunday, July 19 at 7 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in downtown Great Barrington, followed by a talkback with Ax and Levy. Tickets are available on Mahaiwe.org.

The co-world premiere of All the Music in the World will additionally be presented by Tanglewood, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, and DOC NYC at the DOC NYC film festival in New York City at a to-be-determined date in November 2026.  

Made over a three-year period from 2023 to 2026, All the Music in the World is a portrait of an artist who has spent five decades at the pinnacle of classical music, offering an intimate look at the life of a virtuoso. Helping to tell that story are Ax’s longtime friends and collaborators, including Yo-Yo Ma, John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, Leonidas Kavakos, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alisa Weilerstein, Rafael Payare, and Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons.  

One major thread of the film follows Ax’s preparation for the world premiere of John Williams’ Piano Concerto with Nelsons and the BSO in the summer of 2025. The film captures his first encounter with the score, his preparation for the performance, and the concerto’s July 26 premiere at Tanglewood, which served as the final shoot of production.  

When not touring, Ax divides his time between New York City and West Stockbridge and has been a longtime friend of the Berkshires and Tanglewood, having made his debut at the venue in 1978 and performed there on over 100 occasions since. This summer, he appears as a guest for the weekly TLI Talks and Walks series moderated by BSO Vice President of Artistic Planning Anthony Fogg (Thurs., July 2, 1 p.m.), performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, K.503 with the BSO and Andris Nelsons (Fri., July 11, 8 p.m.), and offers two seminars on Mozart concerti for Tanglewood Music Center Piano Fellows (Wed., July 15, 1:30 p.m. and Thurs., July 16, 4 p.m.). Ax’s relationship with the Mahaiwe also spans many years. A longtime friend of the late Lola Jaffe, founding President and Chair of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, he performed at a gala benefit in January 2010 marking the naming of the theater’s stage in her honor. A decade later, he recorded a video performance and special tribute for Ms. Jaffe, who was honored at a virtual gala during the pandemic. 

For more information about the film, including the director’s statement, production notes, and a trailer, click here. 

About Emanuel Ax

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. 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 by the Avery Fisher Prize. 

Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. Following the success of the Brahms trios with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the trio launched an ambitious multi-year project to record all the Beethoven trios and symphonies arranged for piano trio, of which the first three discs have 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 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, Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year. 

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. He has won eight GRAMMY Awards and has received a total of 21 nominations. In 2026, Ax was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year. 

About Joseph Levy

Joseph Levy is an award-winning director, writer, and producer whose work spans film and television across both documentary and narrative storytelling. 

Levy directed and produced the feature documentary Spinning Plates, which won numerous Best Documentary and Audience Awards at film festivals before an extended theatrical run. The film was selected by the U.S. State Department to launch the United States’ cultural programming at the 2015 World’s Fair in Milan. 

Over the course of his career, Levy has created, written, produced, and directed series, pilots, and specials for a variety of television networks and studios. His first television series, Into the Fire, for Food Network, received a James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Television Series. 

In 1999, Levy produced the short film George Lucas in Love, a global sensation that garnered international media attention and became one of the defining short films of the early internet era. The film garnered numerous awards and screened at festivals around the world, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, and continues to be studied in film programs today. 

A native of Texas, Levy attended the University of Southern California, initially focusing on music composition, film scoring, and cello performance. As his interests expanded to filmmaking, he pursued extensive coursework at the USC School of Cinema-Television while completing a degree in music.