For Immediate Release: Press Contacts: October 20, 2015 Eileen Chambers, 312-294-3092 Rachelle Roe, 312-294-3090 Photos Available By Request [email protected] VIOLINIST JOSHUA BELL RETURNS TO SYMPHONY CENTER WITH PIANIST SAM HAYWOOD FOR OCTOBER CHAMBER MUSIC PROGRAM Program To Include Works by Vitali, Beethoven and Fauré Friday, October 30 at 8:00 p.m. CHICAGO — The first concert of the 2015/16 Symphony Center Presents (SCP) PowerShares QQQ Chamber Music series features world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell on Friday, October 30, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. Pianist Sam Haywood, who is one of Bell’s regular chamber music collaborators, joins Bell for a diverse program of works by Vitali, Beethoven and Fauré. Additional works to be announced from the stage. For a complete listing of the four programs in the 2015/16 SCP PowerShares QQQ Chamber Music series, click here. Bell opens the program with the virtuosic baroque showpiece Chaconne in G minor by Tomaso Antonio Vitali. The program also includes Beethoven’s brilliant and fiery “Kreutzer” Sonata No. 1 in A Major, which was written to showcase the violin and piano as equal artistic partners. Fauré’s effervescent Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major closes the program. Widely known as the composer’s first masterpiece, the Fauré sonata has a special history with Bell as it was included on his 1989 breakout recording of French violin sonatas with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Patrons attending the November 30 concert are invited to a CD signing with Bell in Grainger Ballroom immediately following the performance. Bell and Haywood have made several Symphony Center appearances together, performing most recently on the Chamber Music series in 2012 prompting the Chicago Tribune to praise Bell as “exalting in technical brilliance” and Haywood as a “hypersensitive, sterling partner.” Bell made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut in 1990 under the baton of James Levine, and has returned to Symphony Center as a soloist with the Orchestra regularly since that time. Bell has also made frequent appearances on the Chamber Music series at Symphony Center since his first appearance in 2005. Recognized as one of the leading violinists of our time, Joshua Bell has earned many accolades, including both Grammy® and Gramophone awards. As an internationally acclaimed soloist, Bell performs regularly with major orchestras around the world, with recent or upcoming appearances including those with the New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris, among others. In 2011, Bell was named the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and is the first person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958. Bell released BACH, his most recent Sony Classical CD featuring the concerti of J.S. Bach, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2014. Bell’s multifaceted interests also extend to a now-famous incognito performance in a Washington, D.C. subway station for a Washington Post story by Gene Weingarten examining art and context. The story earned Weingarten a Pulitzer Prize and sparked an international firestorm of discussion. The conversation continues to this day, thanks in part to the publication of the award-winning illustrated children’s book, The Man With the Violin, which tells the story of his subway performance. Bell recently returned “to the subway” and invited the public to witness his performance with a number of talented YoungArts alumni musicians. These artists appeared with him on the HBO YoungArts Joshua Bell Masterclass TV Special which aired in September 2014. Tickets for all CSOA-presented concerts can be purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312- 294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604. Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in advance or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-294- 3040. Artists, programs and prices are subject to change. The Symphony Center Presents PowerShares QQQ Chamber Music series is sponsored by PowerShares QQQ. # # # Symphony Center Presents Friday, October 30, 8:00 p.m. PowerShares QQQ Chamber Music Joshua Bell, violin Sam Haywood, piano VITALI Chaconne for Violin and Piano in G minor, BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 (Kreutzer) FAURÉ Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major, Op. 13 Additional works to be announced from the stage. Tickets: $40-$116 Joshua Bell Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era, and his restless curiosity, passion, and multifaceted musical interests are almost unparalleled in the world of classical music. Named the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2011, Bell is the first person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 CDs garnering Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone and Echo Klassik awards since his first LP recording at age 18 on the Decca Label. Bell kicks off the Fall 2015 season performing with the Houston, St. Louis and Indianapolis Symphony orchestras followed by a U.S. recital tour with pianist Sam Haywood, a European tour with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and three concerts as guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic led by Alan Gilbert both end the year and start 2016. The new year continues with a U.S. recital tour with Sam Haywood and with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Orchestral dates celebrating the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Centennial season conducted by Marin Alsop, the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Paavo Jarvi, and the London Symphony Orchestra are also scheduled. Bell is then off to Asia for a recital tour with Alessio Bax and orchestra appearances highlighted by an appearance in Tokyo with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. Bell circles back to Europe for a recital tour with Sam Haywood before returning to be a guest soloist with the Detroit Symphony and then jets off to the Middle East to tour with the Israel Philharmonic led by Michael Stern. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell received his first violin at age four and at 12 began studying with the legendary Josef Gingold at Indiana University. At the age of 14 Bell began his rise to stardom, performing with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra and at age 17 making his Carnegie Hall debut and touring Europe for the first time. Perhaps the event that helped most to transform his reputation from ‘musician's musician’ to ‘household name’ was his incognito performance in a Washington, DC subway station in 2007. Ever adventurous, Bell had agreed to participate in the Washington Post story by Gene Weingarten which thoughtfully examined art and context. The story earned Weingarten a Pulitzer Prize and sparked an international firestorm of discussion. Sam Haywood British pianist Sam Haywood has performed to critical acclaim in many of the world’s major concert halls. As a chamber musician he is a regular duo partner of Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis, and performs with many leading chamber ensembles. For Hyperion he has recorded the piano works of Russian pianist- composer Julius Isserlis, grandfather of cellist Steven Isserlis. His latest album ‘Composers in Love’ brings together both well-loved and lesser known music inspired by composers’ muses. To celebrate Chopin’s bicentennial year, Haywood made the world première recording on Chopin’s own Pleyel piano, part of the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands. He is also featured on Joshua Bell’s ‘Musical Gifts’ for Sony Masterworks. He has broadcast widely in USA and Europe and was recently a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek. Following Haywood’s early success in BBC Young Musician of the Year, the Royal Philharmonic Society awarded him their prestigious Isserlis Award. He studied with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna, where he began his enduring love affair with opera. At the Royal Academy of Music in London, he was mentored by the great teacher Maria Curcio, a pupil of Artur Schnabel. Private audiences have included Princess Diana, HRHs Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Hillary Clinton and Xi Jingping, President of China. Haywood is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Solent Music Festival, which combines recitals by internationally-renowned artists with projects in the local community. He attaches great importance to his work with young people. He is an Ambassador to the West Lakes Academy, has written a children’s opera and is regularly involved in family concerts, workshops and master classes. His ‘Song of the Penguins’, for bassoon and piano, is published by Emerson Editions. He is also the inventor of memorystars (memory-stars.com), which can dramatically reduce the time needed to memorise a music score, or indeed any printed text. His many passions include inspiring science lectures, natural history, technology, magic, scooting, table tennis and chess. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org/ Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Since 2010, the preeminent conductor Riccardo Muti has served as its 10th music director. Pierre Boulez is the CSO’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus, Yo-Yo Ma is its Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek are its Mead Composers-in-Residence. From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast repertoire. Its renowned musicians annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago and, each summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival.