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Joshua Bell, At Home With Friends

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Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell has been in the spotlight since he was 14 years old. Crazy! Now, 20 years and 30 original albums later, Joshua has the public’s attention like no other classical violinist of his time, captivating audiences worldwide.

He’s a soloist, chamber musician, orchestra leader and he’s earned countless awards and honors for his work as a concert stage performer and recording artist, including “Classical Artist of the Year” and “Classical CD of the Year” by Billboard Magazine. He’s the first musician to have a classical music video played on VH1, and he’s appeared on Sesame Street. And you know he’s big if he’s been on Sesame Street!

Joshua’s well known for holding ‘musical soirées’ at his Manhattan residence – parties with musicians, actors, comics and authors who get together just for the sheer joy of sharing their art. With his new album, At Home With Friends, he fulfilled a life-long career dream of recording a CD of instrumental and vocal duets with an amazing roster of musicians and friends. At Home With Friends was released on September 29 and has been a joy to listen to.

I don’t listen to classical music that often, but what interested me about this particular album is who Joshua is playing with – Regina Spektor, Josh Groban, Sting, Kristin Chenoweth, Chris Botti, and more! At Home With Friends covers many genres – from classical to pop, bluegrass to Broadway, jazz and ethnic music. My favorite songs are the tango-inspired “Oblivion,” “My Funny Valentine,” with Kristin Chenoweth, as I love her voice, and “Para Tí,” with its Latin rhythms.

For more on Joshua Bell, visit www.joshuabell.com and his facebook page. Check out the track list:
I Loves You Porgy, featuring Chris Botti on trumpet
Come Again, featuring Sting’s vocals
Oblivion, featuring Carel Kraayenhof on bandoneon
Cinema Paradiso, featuring Josh Groban’s vocals
Para Tí, featuring Tiempo Libre
My Funny Valentine, featuring Kristin Chenoweth’s vocals
Maybe So, featuring Edgar Meyer Sam Bush and Mike Marshall on strings
Grieg: Sonata No. 3, featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff
Eleanor Rigby, featuring Frankie Moreno on piano & vocals
O, Cease Thy Maiden Fair, featuring Nathan Gunn on baritone
Il Postino, featuring Carel Kraayenhof on bandoneon
Left Hand Song, featuring Regina Spektor on piano & vocals
Chovendo Na Roseira, featuring Dave Grusin on piano
Look Away, featuring Edgar Meyer on bass and Chris Thile on mandolin
Variant Moods: Duet for Sitar & Violin, featuring Anoushka Shankar on sitar
I’ll Take Manhattan, featuring Marvin Hamlisch on piano
Left Hand, featuring Regina Spektor’s vocals

I’m giving away a copy of At Home With Friends to a Riding With No Hands reader. To enter, please leave a comment telling me which song you’re looking forward to listening to.

For extra entries:

  • Subscribe to my feed (or let me know if you already do).
  • Follow me on Twitter (@OhMariana) and tweet about this giveaway: I just entered to win the new Joshua Bell CD – At Home With Friends – from @ohMariana! https://bit.ly/2jGldC
  • Become a fan of Riding With No Hands on Facebook and share this with your friends!
  • Blog about this giveaway, linking back to this post.

Contest ends: November 2nd, 2009 11:59 pm EST. US entries only. Leave a separate comment for each entry & a valid email address/blog URL. Winner, chosen at random, has 3 days to claim their prize.

Written for One2One Network, who supplied the product for review and giveaway. Other than a product sample, no compensation was received for this post.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. I would like to hear him sing Eleanor Rigby. I haven’t heard anybody sing that song in a long while.

  26. I look forward to hearing the ENTIRE CD but especially Cinema Paradiso because I am a Josh Groban fan.

  31. I’m looking forward to “Variant Moods: Duet for Sitar & Violin, featuring Anoushka Shankar on sitar”. I think it will be interesting to see how these two very different stringed instruments sound together. We LOVE Joshua and my teenage daughter who plays in the orchestra has even seen him in concert. Hope to win!! Thanks.

  42. I can’t wait to hear Cinema Paradiso, featuring Josh Groban’s vocals. Love both these guys!