Biography:

As he begins a busy 2007-08 concert season, Grammy® Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is reunited with Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Corigliano for the world premiere recording of The Red Violin Concerto recorded with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop.

The release of The Red Violin Concerto follows a seminal year for Bell highlighted not only by his receiving the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, but being the only U.S. musician named by the World Economic Forum as one of the 250 Young Global Leaders, his appointment to the Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music faculty as a senior lecturer, and the release of The Essential Joshua Bell CD.

In Bell’s concerts and recordings, his bold, charismatic artistry has brought a fresh voice to the most venerable masterpieces while also uncovering lesser known gems and new works. As an exclusive Sony Classical artist who has created a richly varied catalogue, his latest work, The Red Violin Concerto evolved during and after The Red Violin film whose score was composed by John Corigliano. While Corigliano won the Oscar for Best Original Score in 1999 for which Bell performed the violin solos while serving as artistic advisor and body double, Corigliano longed to expand upon the score. He would later compose three additional movements for the seven minute chaconne which was the heart of the soundtrack, and thus was born The Red Violin Concerto. The work was recorded with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop. Also on the CD is Corigliano’s Sonata for Violin and Piano with Bell accompanied by pianist Jeremy Denk.

An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell continues to win acclaim for his all-Tchaikovsky disc, released in 2005, featuring live performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. His exploration into the world of opera and song on Voice of the Violin also received excellent reviews and was a successful follow-up to the violinist’s remarkable reception of Romance of the Violin which Billboard Magazine’s named the 2004 “Classical Album of the Year And Bell the “Classical Artist of the Year” . The CD remained on the charts for more than two years.

After summer performances at Tanglewood, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, Joshua Bell’s 2007-2008 performance season includes concerts with the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, a European tour with Kurt Masur conducting the Orchestre National de France as well as appearances with the Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Chicago Symphony, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and the Tonhalle-Orchester. In October, he will premiere a new work written for him by Jay Greenberg with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. He concludes 2007 – and welcomes 2008 – as the guest soloist with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic at the annual New Year’s Eve Gala at Lincoln Center. A recital tour with Jeremy Denk takes the pair to Europe and the U.S. including The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Bell will also tour Europe as a guest soloist with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

For over two decades, Joshua Bell has been captivating audiences worldwide with his poetic musicality. 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 and 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, Steven Isserlis and Edgar Meyer as well as occasional collaborations with artists outside the classical arena, having shared the stage with Josh Groban, James Taylor and Sting.

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

Joshua Bell made his first recording at the age of 18, and he has an extensive catalogue of classical recordings resulting in a distinctive and wide-ranging body of work.

From the classical repertoire, Bell has made critically acclaimed recordings for Sony Classical of the concertos of Beethoven and Mendelssohn (both featuring his own cadenzas), and 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 an all-Bernstein recording (also a Grammy nominee) 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 appears 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 in recent years, performing music from Short Trip Home and West Side Story Suite.

Bell has also won the 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.

With more than 30 CDs recorded, Bell’s performances for Sony Classical film soundtracks include the Classical Brit-nominated Ladies in Lavender and Academy Award-winning film Iris, in an original score by James Horner. Bell has also appeared as himself in the film Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep, and millions of people are just as likely to see him on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show, CBS’ Sunday Morning and The Today Show 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 The New York Times, which stated, “Mr. Bell doesn’t stand in anyone’s shadow.”

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. Bell currently serves on the Artist Committee of the Kennedy Center Honors.

Joshua Bell plays the 1713 Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius.