Pianist Emanuel Ax was born in Ukraine and lived in Warsaw and Winnipeg before arriving in New York, where he studied at Julliard and later at Columbia, earning a BA not in music but in French. One sign of his esteem as a performer is the roster of colleagues who’ve regularly performed with him, including Isaac Stern and Yoyo Ma. One sign of his amiable nature, he asked Randy to call him Manny. Ce fût très gentil de sa part.

• PERSON: violinist Isaac Stern
• PLACE: Carnegie Hall dress circle
• THING: a toaster

• RANDY’S THING: Green-Wood Cemetery