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Avid Computer Gamer and Tennis Player to Perform with Virginia Symphony at Chrysler Hall
He's also the "Simply Dazzling" Violinist Joshua Bell
Hampton Roads, VA…Virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell, will light up Chrysler Hall Thursday, October 4, at 8pm, as he joins the Virginia Symphony for one performance only. Described by Gramophone as “simply dazzling,” Bell will perform Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Bruch’s most famous composition.
Music is not the talented violinist’s only passion. Growing up on a farm in Bloomington, Indiana, as a child he indulged interests outside of music, becoming an avid computer gamer and a competitive athlete. At age 10, he placed 4th in a national tennis tournament. At age 40, he is still fascinated by computer games and avidly plays then on long airplane trips and during his free time on the road. The dashing violinist is as tech-savvy as he is talented. And he also keeps his tennis racquet handy and his golf clubs.
His music career began at age four when his parents heard him plucking tunes on rubber bands he had stretched around the handles of his dresser drawers. A scaled-to-size violin and lessons followed immediately. By age 12 he was serious about the instrument and by age 14 he was making his debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was the youngest person ever to appear with the orchestra on a subscription concert. Three years later, he made his Carnegie Hall debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to enthusiastic reviews. Today Bell performs inside and outside the classical realm, playing with the world’s top orchestras and with contemporary musicians such as James Taylor and Chick Corea. Widely recognized for his solo performance on the Oscar–winning soundtrack of The Red Violin, he recently recorded John Corligiano’s new Red Violin Concerto. This latest CD by the three-time Grammy-Award winning violinist has topped the Billboard Classical Music chart. This year Bell was awarded the famed Avery Fisher Prize for artistic achievement. –more-
The History of Joshua Bell’s Violin
The violin Bell plays, a 1713 Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius, has a history as dramatic as the violin portrayed in the film The Red Violin. One of the world’s great violins, (those produced and shaped by the hands of Antonio Stradivari have never been bettered), the Stradivarius was stolen from the Carnegie Hall dressing room of violinist Bronislaw Huberman in 1936 and disappeared for 50 years.
It resurfaced in Connecticut in the 1980s in the possession of a violinist who had attended Juilliard and performed with the National Symphony in Washington. He said it was a $100 copy of a Strad he had purchased in his youth. He moved to Connecticut with his girlfriend (who became his wife) who later had him arrested for molesting her granddaughter. In prison he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and made a deathbed confession that he had stolen the violin when he worked as a wondering violinist in a Russian restaurant near Carnegie Hall, hiding it under his peasant costume. After his death, legal wrangles followed involving Lloyds of London (who having paid the insurance on the stolen violin now owned it), the widow and a daughter from the violinist’s first marriage who suddenly appeared. With the legal squabbles settled, the violin was ultimately purchased by violinist Norbert Brainin.
Bell became aware of the violin and sampled its sound when he performed a concert with Norbert Brainin. Learning that Brainin intended to sell the violin to a German industrialist to put in his collection, Bell who says “I was practically in tears,” negotiated a price slightly under four million dollars. Bell sold his Tom Taylor Stradivarius for two million dollars, raised the remaining amount and purchased the violin. Romance of the Violin, the first CD he made with the violin became the best selling CD in classical music. Where Bell goes, his violin goes and he will play the violin for the Virginia Symphony concert.
For the concert, the Virginia Symphony will perform James Beckel’s Toccata for Orchestra, Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid Suite and Enesco’s Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1.for the concert.
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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