For more than two decades, Joshua Bell has enchanted audiences worldwide with his breathtaking virtuosity and tone of rare beauty. He came to national attention at the age of 14 in a highly acclaimed orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. A Carnegie Hall debut, the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a recording contract further confirmed his presence in the music world. Today he is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra leader. His restless curiosity and multifaceted musical interests have taken him in exciting new directions that have earned him the rare title of "classical music superstar".
Highlights of Bell’s 09-10 season include the September 29th release of Joshua Bell At Home With Friends featuring collaborations with Chris Botti, Sting, Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, Regina Spektor, Anoushka Shankar, Marvin Hamlisch and Tiempo Libre, among others. Performance highlights include the Hollywood Bowl, Verbier, Tuscan Sun, Mostly Mozart, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Menuhin, Gstaad and Enescu festivals and a return to the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall. Western hemisphere engagements include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. Bell performs at the Huberman Festival with the Czestochowa Philharmonic and returns to Moscow to perform with the Russian National Orchestra. 2010 will see Bell on a European and U.S. recital tour which includes Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, and the Wigmore Hall in London; a performance for the World Economic Forum, and dates in Paris, Budapest, Madrid, Athens, Zurich and Istanbul, as well as a tour to Asia with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
Named by Musical America as the 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year, Bell is an exclusive Sony Classical artist known for his breadth and daring choices of repertoire, who has created a richly varied catalogue of recordings. Bell holds a Grammy Award and Mercury Music Prize for the Maw concerto recording with Sir Roger Norrington and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Germany’s Echo Klassik for Sibelius/Goldmark concerto recording with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He received the Gramophone Award for his recording of the Barber and Walton violin concertos and Bloch’s Baal Shem. Bell is the recipient of the 2008 Academy of Achievement award for exceptional accomplishment in the arts, and in 2009 was honored by Education Through Music for his dedication to sharing his love of classical music with disadvantaged youth.
With more than 35 CDs recorded, Bell’s performances for Sony Classical film soundtracks also include The Red Violin, which won the Oscar for Best Original Score, the Classical Brit-nominated Ladies in Lavender and Academy Award-winning film Iris, in an original score by James Horner while appearing as himself in the film Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep. Bell has been profiled in publications ranging from Newsweek to People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People issue, Gramophone and USA Today.
For more information, visit www.joshuabell.com
Jeremy Denk
American pianist Jeremy Denk has steadily built a reputation as one of today’s most compelling and persuasive artists with an unusually broad repertoire.
In 2004, Denk met and first performed with violinist Joshua Bell at the Spoleto festival and was invited on a recital tour, sparking off a musical partnership that continues today. They tour this season throughout the US, performing in Bethesda, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and elsewhere. A Philadelphia reviewer noted their "equal partnership, with no upstaging." They recorded Corigliano’s Violin Sonata for Sony Classical and tour together regularly.
During the 2009-10 season Denk performs concertos by Beethoven, Chopin; Copland, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. He plays a recital of Chopin and Schumann at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and Washington’s Kennedy Center, and he collaborates with baritone Randall Scarlata in Schubert’s Winterreise in Florida and at Boston’s Gardner Museum.
Reviewers frequently comment on the freshness and originality in Denk’s musical interpretations (as well as in his blog). "Mr. Denk is the ideal interpreter for music that defies easy classification," wrote the Richmond Times; the New York Sun called his "Waldstein" Sonata "a radical take on a revolutionary work"; and The Washington Post referred to his "brilliant playing at the edge of Schumann’s sanity."
Recital Program (Subject to change)
J. S. Bach Violin Sonata No. 4 in C minor, BWV 1017
Grieg Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano in C minor, Op. 45
Schumann Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 105
Ravel Sonata for Violin and Piano (1927)