Joshua Bell Press Report 9.26

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BETTER.TV blog

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

JOSHUA BELL AT HOME

I got a rare opportunity to talk with violinist Joshua Bell at his home in Chelsea. The artists three story homeis totally designed by him. It is exquisite; in fact, Architectural Digest is featuring his home in the magazine.He also designed a large space where as many as 200 friends can enjoy an evening of music much like thesalons of Paris.

Joshua showed us his fabulous wall of musical heroes and how talked about how they have been part of his

life studying music from a young age with his teacher Joseph Gingold. He even gives us the back story ofhis body double role of the violinist in The Red Violin.

He has a new album appropriately title AT HOME WITH FRIENDS, which breaks away from the standardclassical repertoire pairing him with musicians from Sting to Chris Botti. Better will be airing an in depth storyTuesday, September 29th. Make sure to check your listing for your city also check out Bettertv.com and TheBetter TV channel on YouTube.

Rebecca MillmanSenior Producer

Posted on September 22, 2009 underEntertainment


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The well-bred violin; Joshua Bell; Artists openness to

music expands classical boundary

Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | 5:50 am

Canwest News Service

There are very few true superstar musicians in the world of classic music. It is a genre,aficionados and practitioners will be quick to tell you, that is often spurned in favour ofthe easy gratification offered by pop, rock, hip hop and the like.

So where does Joshua Bell fit into this seemingly bleak picture? Well, at 13 years of ageBell was already studying music at Indiana University, and by 14 the young classical

violinist made his orchestral debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. At 18, Bell createdhis first studio recording, and in 2004 he performed all the songs on the Oscar-winningscore to the film The Red Violin. He was the first musician to have a classical musicvideo played on VH1, and was also the subject of a social experiment conducted by TheWashington Post that eventually became a Pulitzer Prizewinning article (see sidebar).

Today, at 41 years of age, this classically handsome musician is as much a superstar asany violinist is likely to become, and tonight he joins Toronto Symphony Orchestramusic director Peter Oundjian to kick off a new season at the TSO.

"I almost feel like an honorary Canadian," Bell says of the city he visited annually during

his youth. Bell has also known Oundjian for more than 25 years; they met randomly inthe home of a violin collector while both men were passing through Los Angeles.Tonight theyll take the stage to play Brahms epic Violin Concerto, a piece Bell says is"so rich and so deep and it sounds cliche because everyone says it that each timeyou visit it, it just speaks to you."

It is his incredible gift with such classic concertos that has brought Bells name to thevery top of classical music, but it is his willingness to play and experiment with othergenres that have spread his fame beyond the traditional classical music audience.

"Over the course of my life Ive come across some incredibly interesting musicians who

wouldnt fall directly in the classical category," Bell says. "I like to have these eveningsat my home where anyone can mix and whoever wants to get up and play can do that."

These soirees in his Manhattan apartment, along with Bells openness to the sounds andmethods of other musicians, have led to the new recording Joshua Bell at Home withFriends. The album, to be released on Tuesday, features collaborations with well-knownartists from across the musical spectrum including Sting, Josh Groban, jazz trumpeterChris Botti, sitar player Anoushka Shankar and Broadway singer Kristin Chenoweth,among others.


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It becomes apparent as he describes the manner in which he met each musician that Bell,considered by many to be the worlds most gifted violinist, is likely to come into contactwith other talented musicians quite naturally. The fact that Bell has capitalized creatively

on these friendships is a testament to his willingness to learn from others. "I guess Ivebeen open," Bell says.

And while he hates the word crossover, Bell also admits that the consumption of music isshifting so that collaborations like those on his new album are increasingly likely tooccur. "We live in an age today where you can have a million different things on a singleiPod," Bell says. "A lot of young people will have rock music and pieces of Beethoventogether on their iPod, and I think thats great."

Bell witnessed effects of this sort of collaboration first hand after playing on a singletrack on a Josh Groban album. "The album sold something like five or six million copies,

and I suddenly had all kinds of people coming to my concerts saying, I heard you onJosh Grobans album and Ive never been to a classical concert in my life, " Bell says."A lot of people just dont know where to begin with classical music they need someway in and projects like this new album can be that entryway."

-Joshua Bell plays with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra tonight and on Saturday at 8 p.m. Call 416-598-3375 for tickets. Joshua Bell at Home with Friends will be released onTuesday.

WORTH LISTENING TO?

Being recognized by your musical peers is one thing, but would the average pedestriantake notice of one of the worlds most gifted violinists? That was the experiment initiatedby Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten when he asked Joshua Bell to busk at asubway station during morning rush hour on Jan. 12, 2007, in Washington, D. C. Of the1,097 people who passed Bell during his 43-minute performance consisting of sixclassical pieces, only seven stopped to listen and 27 donated money. Weingartensresulting article "Pearls Before Breakfast" won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.Bells busking efforts gained him $32.17 in change. National Post


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Joshua Bell has a signed photograph of violinist-composer Eugene Ysayefrom1907 on a wall of his apartment in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood,the photo framed alongside an autographed sheet of paper. At the head oftheautograph, Ysaye inscribes a quote from his "Caprice after Saint-Saens' Etudeen Forme de Valse, No.6, Op. 52," a piece that Bel l recorded on a 1992 Deccaalbum titled Poeme . Translated from French, the dedication below reads: "Cecilede Greef, wi th my highest affections-to the gods as wel l. E.Ysaye, Brussels,January 15, 1906."

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Although violinist Joshua Bell is a Hollywood-vettedcrossover star - with his new album featuring the likesof Sting and Josh Groban - he has the training andtaste of an old-school virtuoso, with ties to Golden Ageperformers running deep.

One of the forty-one-year-old Indiananative's heroes is Belgian violinist-composerEugene Ysaye (1858-1931), a forefather ofmodern violin technique who had piecesdedicated to him by such contemporaries asChausson, Debussy and Cesar Franck.Ysaye was the teacher of Bell's teacher, the

Russian-born Josef Gingold, concertmaster ofthe Cleveland Orchestra under George Szelland one of the great violin pedagogues. Gingoldinstilled in Bell a reverence for Ysaye as history'sgreatest violinist -composer after Paganini. -"We only have recordings of Ysaye when

he was very old, but his technique was14 SEPTEMBERIOCTOBER 2009

legendary;' Bell says. "Gingold studied withhim as a boy. He would talk about Ysaye,imitate the way he played and encourage meto learn his music. I have an autographedpicture of Ysaye hanging in my apartment. that my former girlfriend gave me, and I havea ceramic replica of his hand that Gingoldgave me just before he died, in 1995:'Ysaye himself learned from Henri Vieux-

temps at the start of a Franco-Belgian school ofviolin playing that would be made famous onrecord by Arthur Grumiaux. Gingold stressedthe expressivity and nuance of Ysayes playing,with "subtlety and beauty of sound its hall-

At Home With FriendsJoshua Bell, violinSony[available Sept 29]

marks;' Bell says, "not necessarily pyrotechnics"But in recent Bell recitals that also

included sonatas by Brahms, Franck andJanacek, Ysayes solo Sonata No.2 in A minorwas the most technically difficult piece on theprogram, exploring "the violin in amazingways;' says Bell. "The piece is called the'Obsession; which refers to Ysaves obsessionwith Bach. He wrote a set of six works for soloviolin just as Bach did, and Ysaye quotes fromBach's Partita NO.3 in the second solo sonata.I joke that if Bach's solo works are the OldTestament of the violin, then Ysave's are theNew Testament" _


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Joshua Bell Puts New Spin on House-Concert Concept

Joshua Bell is admittedly blessed. On a good night, the violinistwho can fill a concert

hallcan pack nearly 200 people into a performance space on the second floor of hisnewly renovated loft apartment in New York City for a private evening concert.

My dream was to have sort of musical soiree evenings in this old-fashion salon-type

sense, Bell says, and invite different kinds of artists and various friends of mine and

have an eclectic mix of people playing in my home and invite guests or do it for charity.

Im spoiledIm very lucky to live in Manhattan this way. I designed the house myselfwith an architect and really built every corner of it. Its been a passion of mine for the last

four years.

In part a reflection and celebration of Bells favorite corner of the stylish bachelor pad,

the album Joshua Bell: At Home with Friends is set for an October release by SonyClassical. Listeners should get a taste of the many surprises one of these evenings atBells abode might hold, as the virtuoso is joined by jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, sitar

player Anoushka Shankar (daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar), pianists Marvin

Hamlisch and Jeremy Denk, and even a cameo by Sting, among others. Bells Indiana

University school chum, the innovative contemporary bassist Edgar Meyer, also is

featured on the album. Meyer and mandolin player Chris Thile contribute a track thatbore the tentative title Dotted Quarter = 105.


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Its one of the most challenging rhythmical things Ive ever done, Bell says, and it

sounds simple, but you almost need a calculus degree to figure it out.

Also look forward to an arrangement of the Beatles Eleanor Rigby by Bell and his

rock-crooning pal Frankie Moreno.

Joshua Bell Press Report 9.26

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