University of Florida Performing Arts

Sponsored by Koss Olinger Financial Group and Shands HealthCare.

 Did you know…

• Joshua Bell 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.
• Joshua Bell made his first recording at the age of 18. Since then he has fostered an extensive catalogue of classical recordings resulting in a distinctive and wide-ranging body of work.
• Bell and his two sisters grew up on a farm in Bloomington, Indiana. As a child, he explored 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.
• Joshua performed for the President, First Lady and guests on February 11 at the grand reopening of the Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. The event honored George Lucas and Sidney Poitier with additional performances from high-profile entertainers. The audience was amazed to learn that the violin Joshua was playing was last played at Ford’s Theatre on April 14th, 1865 — the evening Lincoln was assassinated.
• Bell received the 2008 Academy of Achievement award for exceptional accomplishment in the arts.
• Joshua Bell plays the 1713 Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius.
• In 1998 Jeremy Denk won both the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and received a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.
• The versatile pianist’s repertoire ranges from the standard works of the 18th and 19th centuries to twentieth-century masters such as Ives, Ligeti, Lutoslawski and Messiaen, and further to new works by leading composers of today. 
• Denk made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in April 1997 as the winner of the Juilliard Piano Debut Award.
• Jeremy Denk first performed with violinist Joshua Bell at the 2004 Spoleto Festival. Since then, they have toured throughout the United States in and Europe with almost eighty performances to date. The Philadelphia Reviewer noted their “equal partnership, with no upstaging.”