February 18, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sevan Melikyan Dir. of P.R., 817.738.6536
SUPERSTAR VIOLINIST JOSHUA BELL RETURNS TO CLIBURN AT THE
BASS
"...one of the finest musicians of his generation..." -
The Washington Post
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, February 18, 2008 - Grammy Award-winning
American violinist Joshua Bell will return to the Cliburn Concerts
stage on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. in Bass Performance
Hall (4th and Calhoun Streets, downtown Fort Worth). He will be
joined by acclaimed pianist and frequent accompanist Jeremy
Denk.
For more than two decades Joshua Bell has captivated audiences
worldwide with his riveting performances, poetic musicality, and
magnetic presence. The recent recipient of the coveted Avery Fisher
Prize, Mr. Bell was also one of the youngest inductees into the
Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, as well as the only U.S. musician
named by the World Economic Forum as one of 250 Young Global
Leaders.
Mr. Bell's appeal to a wide spectrum of concert audiences,
including those of his generation and younger, has earned him star
status. He was one of the first classical artists to have a music
video air on VH1; has been a featured player on such noted film
scores as The Red Violin; and has been profiled in publications
ranging from Elle and People to Gramophone and The New York Times,
which stated, "Mr. Bell doesn't stand in anyone's shadow."
Mr. Bell's Cliburn at the Bass program will include works by
Tartini, Prokofiev, Dvorák, and Saint-Saëns. (See program details
below.)
Prior to the concert, there will be a Cliburn Conversations
presentation hosted by Dr. Carol Reynolds at 6:30 p.m. in the
Mezzanine Lobby of Bass Performance Hall. Cliburn Conversations is
free to all ticket holders and is designed to provide insightful
information about the evening's program.
Cliburn at the Bass is part of the 2007- 2008 Cliburn Concerts
series. Widely regarded as the "foremost classical performance
series in the Southwest", Cliburn Concerts features the world's
leading recitalists, ensembles, and rising stars. The series is
presented in three venues: Bass Performance Hall, the Kimbell Art
Museum, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
TICKETS AND INFORMATION: Single tickets to
Cliburn Concerts performances range from $20 to $90. Tickets are
available online or by calling 817.335.9000. More information is
available at www.cliburn.org.
This concert is made possible by a generous contribution from
Star-Telegram.
ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor of the Van Cliburn
Foundation. American Airlines, Bank of America, City of Fort Worth,
Eastman Kodak Company, JPMorgan Chase, Star- Telegram, Steinway
& Sons, and XTO Energy Inc. are Official Corporate Sponsors,
and Clear Channel Communications and RadioShack are the Cliburn's
Corporate Sponsors. Official Sponsors are the Arts Council of Fort
Worth and Tarrant County, The Burnett Foundation, Once Upon a
Time..., and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Star-Telegram is the
principal media partner and WRR 101.1 FM is the official radio
station of Cliburn Concerts.
For more information about the Van Cliburn Foundation, please
visit www.cliburn.org.
JOSHUA BELL
Joshua Bell's 2007-2008 season follows a seminal year
highlighted by receiving the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, being the
only U.S. musician named by the World Economic Forum as one of the
250 Young Global Leaders, and being appointed to Indiana
University's Jacobs School of Music faculty as senior lecturer. His
bold, charismatic artistry continues to bring a fresh voice to the
most venerable masterpieces and new works, exemplified by the fall
2007 CD release of The Red Violin Concerto, composed by John
Corigliano.
After summer performances at Tanglewood, the Verbier Festival,
and Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, the remainder of Mr. Bell's
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, and appearances with the Pittsburgh,
Philadelphia, and Chicago Symphonies; the Salzburg Mozarteum
Orchestra; and the Tonhalle-Orchester. In October, he premiered a
new work by Jay Greenberg with the Orchestra of St. Luke's at
Carnegie Hall. Mr. Bell concluded 2007 with the New York
Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Gala at Lincoln Center. A spring 2008
recital tour with Jeremy Denk is highlighted by appearances at the
Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Mr. Bell will also tour Europe as
guest soloist with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
For more than two decades Joshua Bell has captivated audiences
worldwide with his poetic musicality. He came to national attention
at the age of fourteen in a highly acclaimed orchestral debut with
Riccardon Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. A Carnegie Hall
debut, the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a recording
contract further confirmed his prominence 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 consistently led him in exciting new directions. In
addition to pursuing his concert career, Mr. Bell enjoys chamber
music collaborations with such artists as Steven Isserlis and Edgar
Meyer, as well as occasional collaborations with artists outside
the classical arena, including Josh Groban, James Taylor, and
Sting.
Mr. Bell has recorded more than thirty CDs since first signing
with the London/Decca label at age eighteen. Now an exclusive Sony
Classical artist who has created a richly varied catalogue of
recordings, he recently released The Essential Joshua Bell, while
Voice of the Violin continues to soar on the heels of Romance of
the Violin, which Billboard named the Classical CD of the Year in
2004, and for which it named Mr. Bell the Classical Artist of the
Year. His live recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
continues to win critical acclaim. His performances for Sony
Classical film soundtracks include the Classical Brit-nominated
Ladies in Lavender and the Academy Award-winning film Iris, in an
original score by James Horner. Joshua Bell has also appeared as
himself in the film Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep, and
people are just as likely to see him on Late Night with Conan
O'Brien, The Tonight Show, CBS' Sunday Morning, and several PBS
programs.
Joshua Bell received his first violin at age four after his
parents noticed him plucking tunes with rubber bands he had
stretched around the handles of dresser drawers. By age twelve he
was serious about the instrument, thanks to the inspiration of
renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold, who became his
beloved teacher. In 1989, he received an artist diploma from the
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has been named an
"Indiana Living Legend," received the Indiana Governor's Arts
Award, and in 2005 was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of
Fame. He serves on the artist committee of the Kennedy Center
Honors. Mr. Bell plays the 1713 Gibson ex Huberman
Stradivarius.
For more information, visit www.joshuabell.com.
JEREMY DENK
Pianist Jeremy Denk earned early recognition through the
prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Young Concert Artists
International Auditions, which launched his career as a recitalist,
concert soloist, and chamber musician. He played his New York City
recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in April 1997 after winning
Juilliard's Piano Debut Award, and since then has played frequent
recitals in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington,
and elsewhere.
Playing concerti from his extensive repertoire, Mr. Denk has
appeared with leading orchestras at home and abroad, including the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Dallas Symphony,
and the Philharmonia of London, among others. He recently debuted
with the St. Louis, Houston, and San Francisco Symphonies, as well
as with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with which he made his
Carnegie Hall concerto debut. An inventive programmer who maintains
working relationships with a number of living composers, he has
premiered works by Jack Heggie, Libby Larsen, Kevin Putz, and Ned
Rorem, among others.
With an enthusiastic commitment to chamber music, Jeremy Denk
has collaborated with several of the world's leading string
quartets, among them the Borromeo, Brentano, Colorado, Shanghai,
and Vermeer, and has appeared regularly at prestigious chamber
music festivals in Santa Fe, Spoleto, Seattle, and elsewhere. He
has spent a number of summers at the Marlboro Music School and
Festival and has participated in national tours with "Musicians
from Marlboro." One of his continuing artistic collaborations is
with Joshua Bell; they have toured extensively, performing together
at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, the Library of
Congress, London's Wigmore Hall, the Verbier Festival, and many
other venues. A Philadelphia reviewer noted their "equal
partnership, with no upstaging."
Mr. Denk maintains a widely read blog, Think Denk, where the
pianist reports on his touring, practicing, and other life
experiences. Listed on Top Ten Sources for Classical Music, it has
received attention from colleagues and industry press alike.
Jeremy Denk is a member of the faculty of the Bard College
Conservatory of Music in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. After
graduating from Oberlin College and Conservatory with a major in
piano and chemistry, Mr. Denk 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 lives in New York City.
PROGRAM
TARTINI Sonata in G minor for Violin & Continuo, B. g5 "The
Devil's Trill"
PROKOFIEV Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
DVORÁK Four Romantic Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 75
SAINT-SAËNS Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op.
75
Contact: Sevan Melikyan Dir. of P.R.
email: sevan@cliburn.org
phone: 817.738.6536
web:
