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 has earned him the rare title of “classical music superstar.” In addition to his concert career, Bell enjoys chamber music collaborations with artists such as Pamela Frank and Steven Isserlis.

Highlights of Bell’s 09-10 season include performances at 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.

“Bell,” Gramophone stated simply, “is dazzling.”

An exclusive Sony Classical artist known for his breadth and daring choices of repertoire, Bell has created a richly varied catalogue of recordings. Recent releases include the soundtracks for Angels & Demons and Defiance, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, The Red Violin Concerto by John Corigliano, The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, The Essential Joshua Bell, Voice of the Violin and Romance of the Violin which Billboard named the 2004 Classical CD of the Year, and Bell the Classical Artist of the Year.

Since his first LP recording at age 18, Bell has made critically acclaimed recordings ofthe concertos of Beethoven and Mendelssohn both featuring his own cadenzas, Sibelius and Goldmark, as well as the Grammy Award winning Nicholas Maw concerto. His Grammy-nominated recording Gershwin Fantasy premiered a new work for violin and orchestra based on themes from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Its success led to a Grammy nominated all-Bernstein recording that included the premiere of the West Side Story Suite as well as a new recording of the composer’s Serenade. With the composer and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, Bell appeared on the Grammy-nominated crossover recording Short Trip Home and a disc of concert works by Meyer and the 19th-century composer Giovanni Bottesini. Bell also collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on the Grammy-winning spoken word children’s album, Listen to the Storyteller and Bela Fleck’s Grammy Award winning Perpetual Motion. He has twice performed on the Grammy Awards telecast, performing music from Short Trip Home and West Side Story Suite.

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 30 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. Millions of people are just as likely to have seen him on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show, Tavis Smiley, Charlie Rose, CBS Sunday Morning as the PBS programs Great Performances—Joshua Bell: West Side Story Suite from Central Park, Joshua Bell at the Penthouse—Live From Lincoln Center, Memorial Day Concert, Sesame Street and A&E’s Biography. He was one of the first classical artists to have a music video air on VH1, and he has been the subject of a BBC Omnibus documentary. Bell has been profiled in publications ranging from Newsweek to People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People issue, Gramophone and USA Today.

Stated Strad: “Joshua Bell will be the one remembered in 50 years’ time.”

Bell and his two sisters grew up on a farm in Bloomington, Indiana. As a child, he indulged in many passions outside of music, becoming an avid computer game player and a competitive athlete. He placed fourth in a national tennis tournament at age 10 and still keeps his racquet close by. Bell received his first violin at age four after his parents, both psychologists by profession, noticed him plucking tunes with rubber bands he had stretched around the handles of his dresser drawers. By 12 he was serious about the instrument, thanks in large part to the inspiration of renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold, who had become his beloved teacher and mentor.

In 1989, Bell received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance from Indiana University. His alma mater also honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award only two years after his graduation. He has been named an “Indiana Living Legend” and received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award. In ’05 he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and he is the recipient of coveted The Avery Fisher Prize.

For more information, visit www.joshuabell.com.

Jeremy Denk

In 1998 Jeremy Denk won both the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and received a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Over the past decade the pianist's career has flourished. The New York Times described his playing as "bracing, effortlessly virtuosic and u

tterly joyous," and he has garnered comparable critical acclaim for his engagements with leading orchestras and presenters nationwide. He has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and many others.

The versatile American pianist's repertoire ranges from the standard works of the 18th and 19th centuries to twentieth-century masters such as Ives, Ligeti, Lutoslawski and Messiaen, and further to new works by leading composers of today. Mr. Denk has participated in many world premieres, including Leon Kirchner's Duo No. 2 (with violinist Ida Levin) at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in the summer of 2002; Ned Rorem's The Unquestioned Answer in the summer of 2003; Jake Heggie's Cut Time in 2001 with the Eos Orchestra; Alternating Current, a work written for him by Kevin Puts, on a Kennedy Center recital program; Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Sonata (with the composer on fiddle) at the Library of Congress; and also Edgar Meyer's Sonata for Violin and Piano with Joshua Bell.

Mr. Denk made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in April 1997 as the winner of the Juilliard Piano Debut Award. Writing of the performance, The New York Times described him as "a pianist with a searching mind." Recent solo appearances include all-Beethoven and all-Bach recitals in Philadelphia, two programs at the Mostly Mozart Festival at New York's Lincoln Center, as well as recitals in Boston and Washington DC.

An avid chamber musician, Jeremy Denk has collaborated with the Borromeo, Brentano, Mirò, St. Lawrence, Shanghai and Vermeer string quartets. Mr. Denk first performed with violinist Joshua Bell at the 2004 Spoleto Festival. Since then, they have toured throughout the United States in and Europe with almost eighty performances to date. The Philadelphia reviewer noted their "equal partnership, with no upstaging." He has appeared with the Detroit Chamber Music Society, at the Seattle and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals and the Spoleto Festivals in Italy and Charleston. The pianist spent several summers at Marlboro in Vermont and has been part of "Musicians from Marlboro" national tours. He also attended the Ravinia Festival's prestigious Steans Institute.

Jeremy Denk has an extensive discography which includes the Tobias Picker Second Piano Concerto with the Moscow Philarmonic; works of Schubert, Bartok, and Strauss with violinist Soovin Kim; the Kirchner Duo with violinist Ida Levin (commemorating Marlboro's 50th anniversary); and many others. He looks forward to the release of his first solo disc featuring Bach Partitas. Additionally, Joshua Bell and he will record the Corigliano Violin Sonata in June 2007.

Jeremy Denk keeps a weblog, Think Denk. It is a mixture of musical and extramusical observations, often pertaining to nothing in particular. Alex Ross, the music critic of the New Yorker, wrote of it: "Besides being a brilliant musician, Denk is simply one of the most interesting writers I know."

Mr. Denk is a member of the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He received a double degree in Chemistry and Piano Performance from the Oberlin College and Conservatory, often infuriating his teacher Joseph Schwartz. He earned a master's degree in music from Indiana University as a pupil of György Sebök, and a doctorate in piano performance from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Herbert Stessin. He makes his home in New York City.