Pianist Emanuel Ax has 20 Grammy nominations and eight wins, a touring career that has taken him to every major venue and orchestra in the world, an Avery Fisher Prize, a commitment to new music resulting in a long list of world premieres, and chamber partnerships, including five decades of collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma.

He’s easily in the top rank of international piano stars, and he returns to the intimate Kimbell Art Museum with a program of Fantasies (Beethoven, Corigliano, Schumann) that he’ll play later that month at Carnegie Hall and the Chicago Symphony Center.