Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell
The poetic musicality of Joshua Bell has earned the American-born violinist a prominent position among the leading musicians of the world. He came to international attention at the age of 14 when he made his orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and Philadelphia Orchestra.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Joshua Bell received his first violin at the age of four, and became seriously committed to the instrument at 12 when he had the privilege to meet Josef Gingold, who became his teacher and mentor. Since 1981, Joshua Bell has performed with the world's leading symphony orchestras and with such conductors as Ashkenazy, Blomstedt, Chailly, von Dohnanyi, Dorati, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Gardiner, Levine, Norrington, Ozawa, Salonen, Slatkin, Temirkanov, Welser-Möst and Zinman.
Bell gives more than 100 concerts each season, and notable engagements have included Central Park with the New York Philharmonic (to an audience of 100,000 people), the Proms in London broadcast live on television and the Salzburg Festival with the Salzburg Camerata and Sir Roger Norrington. He performed at South Bank Show Awards in London, at the Indianapolis 500 motor race and he made his debut in South Africa where, aside from concerts in the major cities, he gave a masterclass in Soweto township.
Joshua Bell's engagements last season included performances with New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia and Orchestre de Paris. He was co-commissioned by several US orchestras to perform a new concerto by John Corigliano and he undertook recital tours in both the USA and in Europe. In early 2004, he embarked on a tour of Germany with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, an orchestra with whom he has a special relationship. He also played on the European tour of the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänska.
This season sees him return to the Berliner Philharmoniker for concerts and for a recording of Tchaikovsky Concerto. He also performs with London Symphony / Tilson Thomas, the Philharmonia / Ashkenazy, Munich Philharmonic / Vanska and on tour in Japan with Orpheus. He tours once more as play/director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, this time in Eastern Europe.
Chamber music is a very important part of Joshua Bell's musical life and he has forged close relationships with artists such as Pamela Frank, Gary Hoffman, Stephen Hough, Steven Isserlis, Edgar Meyer and Tabea Zimmermann. Joshua Bell hosts a regular chamber music festival at the Wigmore Hall in London.
Interested in the works of living composers, Joshua Bell has performed and recorded the world premières of two works written especially for him: Nicholas Maw's Violin Concerto (the recording of which was awarded a Mercury Music Prize and a Grammy Award), and Air for violin and orchestra by the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis. Two years ago he gave the world première of Bezhad Ranjbaran's Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Gerard Schwarz. Joshua Bell also composes his own cadenzas for many violin concertos, including those by Brahms, Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Mozart.
Joshua Bell records exclusively for Sony Classical. 2001 saw the release of music by Leonard Bernstein, including the Serenade for violin and orchestra and a new work by William Brohn, based on themes from West Side Story; this project was recorded in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Zinman and was nominated for a Grammy Award. His Sony disc of the Sibelius and Goldmark violin concertos was recorded with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Bell, with longtime friend, bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, organised a quartet with legendary bluegrass musicians Sam Bush and Mike Marshall which resulted in the album Short Trip Home; this project received a 1999 Grammy nomination for "Best Classical Crossover" and culminated with their appearance on the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards program. His involvement with the film The Red Violin as artistic advisor, body double and the performing artist responsible for all violin sound, culminated in the original soundtrack of The Red Violin album which received a Grammy nomination for "Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture". The music captured the Academy Award for "Best Original Score".
His most recent recordings have included the Beethoven and Mendelssohn concertos with the Camerata Academica Salzburg and Sir Roger Norrington, an album entitled The Romance of the Violin and a soundtrack for the film Ladies in Lavender.
Prior to recording for Sony Classical, Joshua Bell recorded 13 recordings for Decca including Prokofiev concertos, an album of Kreisler, and the Brahms/Schumann concertos. His release of the Barber and Walton violin concertos received a Grammy nomination and the Gramophone Award for "Best Concerto Recording" in 1998.
Joshua Bell's frequent television appearances include The Tonight Show, CNN, CBS, NBC News, CNBC, PBS's Evening at Pops and Live from Lincoln Center. He was one of the first classical musicians to be the focus of a music video that has been broadcast on the VH1, A&E and Bravo television networks. He has also appeared on Sesame Street. Bell was the subject of documentary film presented as part of the BBC's Omnibus series. He has been profiled in many publications including People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People issue, Glamour Magazine's "It" Men of the Millennium, as well as in Esquire, Newsweek, New York, Vogue, Gramophone, Classic CD, Pulse, Strad and Strings magazines.
Joshua Bell holds an Artist Diploma from Indiana University, and is a Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Bell plays a Stradivari violin known either as the "Gibson" or as the "Huberman".
