Grammy® Award winning Violinist Joshua Bell to Perform with Pianist Jeremy Denk at the Kimmel Center February 7
January 25, 2007
"Hearing Mr. Denk’s bracing, effortlessly virtuosic and utterly joyous performance, one would never guess how phenomenally difficult the piano part is."- The New York Times
Free at the Kimmel Pedrick-Smith Guitar Duo to Perform on Commonwealth Plaza Stage at 6:30pm
Grammy® Award winning violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jeremy Denk join forces for a recital in the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 8pm. Bell and Denk’s U.S. and European tour, which recently began in January 2007, pairs pianist Jeremy Denk’s effortless and virtuosic playing with Bell’s passionate violin playing. The program includes Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano in A Minor, Op. 105; Beethoven’s Sonata No. 10 for violin and piano in G major, Op. 96; the premiere of Edgar Meyer’s Concert Piece written for Joshua Bell, as well as selections of romantic classical arias and songs from Voice of the Violin. Bell’s recent release, Voice of the Violin (2006), explores the world of opera and song as a follow-up to Romance of the Violin, which was named by Billboard Magazine the 2004 Classical Album of the Year and Bell the Classical Artist of the Year.
Joshua Bell will be available to personally autograph programs and recordings in the Commonwealth Plaza following the Verizon Hall 8pm ticketed performance.
This is the 13th concert in the Kimmel Center’s Classical series. Upcoming performances include Paul Jacobs on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 3pm and eighth blackbird on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 7:30pm.
Tickets for Joshua Bell on Wednesday February 7, 2007 at 8pm in Verizon Hall are priced at $70, $59, $51, $41, $34, $26 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-893-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
After summer performances at Tanglewood, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, Joshua Bell’s 2006-07 performance season includes concerts with the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London, as well as appearances with the London, Boston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Montreal, Dallas symphonies, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been invited for a residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall, and will continue his role as Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, continuing to play and conduct with them for several weeks while also directing London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields on their Spring 2007 European tour.
At the age of 14, Joshua Bell came to national attention when making his orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. This Grammy® Award winning violinist has been entertaining audiences for over two decades and has released over 30 albums to date including Voice of the Violin, Tchaikovsky: Violin Concert (2006), Romance of the Violin (2003) and Gershwin Fantacy (1998). Bell was a creative partner in John Corigliano’s The Red Violin, an Academy Award winning hit film in 1999. 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.
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 and renowned violinist Josef Gingold, who had become his beloved mentor and teacher. In 1989, he received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance from Indiana University. In 1991, the University honored Bell with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award. He has also been named an "Indiana Living Legend" and received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award. In 2005 he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. He currently serves on the Artist Committee of the Kennedy Center Honors.
Pianist Jeremy Denk is a recitalist and a concert soloist currently touring with Joshua Bell. Their continuing artistic collaboration has brought them to perform together at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Library of Congress, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Verbier Festival and many other venues. His national career launched after winning the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1998 and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1997. He has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, and the Philharmonia of London, and gives debut performances with the St. Louis, Houston, and San Francisco Symphonies this season, as well as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with which he makes his Carnegie Hall concerto debut. Denk is committed to chamber music, and has collaborated with several string quartets including Borromeo, Brentano, Colorado, Shanghai and Vermeer, and has appeared regularly at prestigious chamber music festivals in Santa Fe, Spoleto, Seattle, and elsewhere. Denk is a featured artist-in-residence on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and reports some of his touring, practicing, and otherwise unrelated experiences in a web log called "Think Denk" (www.jeremydenk.blogspot.com), listed on Top Ten Sources for Classical Music. Denk is currently a member of the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Prominently established as a unique and masterful instrumentalist, Edgar Meyer is a vibrant performer and an innovative composer. Hailed by The New Yorker as, "…the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument," Mr. Meyer combines unparalleled technique and musicianship with a gift for composition. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002. Mr. Meyer’s most recent album is a self-titled solo recording released in April 2006, on which he wrote and played all of the pieces on instruments including piano, guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, gamba, and double bass. His inventive performing and collaborations have been widely acclaimed, which includes recording projects with Béla Fleck, Joshua Bell, Sam Bush and Mike Marshall, Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor.
Kimmel Center Presents' 2006/2007 season is supported by: Mellon Financial Corporation, University of Pennsylvania Health System, National Endowment for the Arts, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, ARC Wheeler, The William Penn Foundation, The Wachovia Foundation, Verizon Foundation, The Presser Foundation, Philadelphia Music Project and Dance Advance, Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trust administered by The University of the Arts. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Jazz and World Pop programming. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents. The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com are media sponsors for the Great Orchestras on Tour series.
FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENTS are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program supported by a generous grant from Wachovia Foundation.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS
Wednesday, February 7, 2007 | 8pm
Verizon Hall
Joshua Bell, violin
Jeremy Denk, piano
SCHUMANN: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 105
BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 10 for Violin and Piano in G major, Op. 96
MEYER: Concert Piece for Violin and Piano
Selections from Voice of the Violin, tba
FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENT:
Wednesday, February 7, 2007 | 6:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza
Pedrick-Smith Guitar Duo
In September 2002 Thomas Smith’s composition "River Rising" was premiered by the Pedrick Hutson guitar duo at the Philly Fringe Festival. Since then, the duo has recorded the piece for their CD Environs, and have extensively performed throughout the United States for guitar societies, concert series, and music festivals. Their music encompasses a variety of styles, including classical, jazz and world sounds. Prior to the ticketed Joshua Bell performance in Verizon Hall.
OTHER UPCOMING FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENTS:
Saturday, February 10, 2007 | 1pm
Commonwealth Plaza
Svitanya
A female a cappella ensemble celebrate the timbres, rhythms, and harmonies indigenous to Eastern Europe, and perform a diverse repertoire of traditional Eastern European songs with modern arrangements – ranging from strong and strident-filled working songs to traditional dance tunes to lush and emotive arrangements. Prior to the ticketed Paul Jacobs performance in Verizon Hall.
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