Joshua Bell's Recordings Hold Two Top Billboard Chart Positions as Grammy-Winning Violinist Plans Winter Recital Tour of The U.S.

NEW YORK -- Sony Classical

--PERFORMING AT BARNES & NOBLE @ Broadway/W.66 St. Monday, November 28th - CBS 7:00pm CBS SATURDAY MORNING TV WILL TAPE

--PERFORMING CARNEGIE HALL - DECEMBER 1

--OKLAHOMA CITY PHILHARMONIC-JANUARY 6

--NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC, LINCOLN CENTER-JANUARY 11,12,13,14,17

--Critically Acclaimed New Recording Of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Joins Bell's 2003 Hit Romance of the Violin On Billboard Traditional Classical Chart

--Bell To Play 34-City U.S. Recital Tour With Pianist Jeremy Denk In February & March 2006

As he prepares to embark on a major recital tour of the U.S., violinist Joshua Bell has a pair of CDs near the top of Billboard's Traditional Classical Chart - at No. 7, his critically acclaimed live recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, released from Sony Classical on a hybrid Super Audio CD in September, holds its place in the top 10, along with his bestselling 2003 release Romance of the Violin, at No. 8.

On February 9, 2006, Bell, joined by pianist Jeremy Denk, begins a winter U.S. tour that will include recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York and Disney Hall in Los Angeles (the complete tour itinerary is attached). In the spring of 2006, he is scheduled to play the Tchaikovsky concerto in concerts with both the Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestras.

Bell's new Tchaikovsky recording has been in the top 10 on Billboard's Traditional Classical chart since its release in September. His late-2003 release Romance of the Violin hit No. 1 on Billboard's Traditional Classical chart and stayed there for 12 weeks, remaining in the top 10 for almost two years following its original release. In December 2004, Romance of the Violin was named No. 1 Classical Album of the Year by Billboard, and Bell was cited as No. 1 Classical Artist of the Year. It was released as a DualDisc earlier this year.

"Brilliant Bell returns to the Tchaikovsky and the result is tender and exciting," Gramophone headlined its review of the Tchaikovsky CD, which also includes the composer's "Meditation" and the "Danse Russe" from Swan Lake. Comparing the new disc to a studio recording of the concerto Bell made early in his career, the review adds, "his brilliant new live version is freer, more volatile and even more affectionate ... In the central Canzonetta he is even more tender and individual in his phrasing ... in he reprise of the main theme Bell is more delicate than in the earlier version and in the finale he opens up the brief traditional cuts he made before, an obvious advantage." The Observer of London hailed it as "a majestic recording, thanks to Bell's increasing maturity; the slow movement is especially vivid and haunting amid his masterful virtuosity in the opening and closing allegri."

"I live to perform, and to get the opportunity to record an album in front of a series of live audiences in Berlin - which captures that adrenalin induced by an audience - was an ideal recording opportunity," says Bell, who adds that he never tires of the concerto, which he has been performing for more than 20 years. The violinist adds, "The Tchaikovsky concerto is often thought of as a big, romantic concerto, which it is. Of course it has its extroverted, flashy and powerful moments, but the Tchaikovsky is also intimate, elegant and 'balletic.'"

A violinist of diverse musical interests and accomplishments, Joshua Bell is an exclusive Sony Classical artist. In addition to the new Tchaikovsky disc, his most recent releases on the label are the soundtrack recordings of the films Dreamer and Ladies in Lavender, the latter nominated recently for England's Classical Brit Award.

Bell's critically acclaimed recordings for Sony Classical have ranged from core-classical works (concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Goldmark) to new concert works written especially for him by such composers as Edgar Meyer and Nicholas Maw, whose Violin Concerto, performed by Bell, captured the Grammy for Best Solo Performance With Orchestra. His imaginative new recordings of music from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Bernstein's West Side Story have been best sellers, and he served as a soloist, advisor and creative partner in John Corigliano's Oscar-winning score for the film The Red Violin.

RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical and deutsche harmonia mundi are labels of SONY BMG MASTERWORKS. For e-mail updates and information regarding RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical and deutsche harmonia mundi artists, promotions, tours and repertoire, please visit www.sonybmgmasterworks.com. For more information about Joshua Bell, visit www.joshuabell.com.

JOSHUA BELL 34-CITY RECITAL TOUR WITH JEREMY DENK

January 6  Oklahoma City Philharmonic
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February
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9          Saratoga, CA, Montalvo Arts Center
10         Davis, CA, Mondavi Arts Center, University of California-
           Davis
11         San Francisco, CA, Davies Hall
12         Los Angeles, CA, Walt Disney Concert Hall
14         Scottsdale, AZ, Scottsdale Center for the Arts
15         Palm Desert, CA, McCallum Theatre
16         Aspen, CO, Harris Concert Hall
18         Poughkeepsie, NY, Bardovan Opera House
19         Newark, NJ, New Jersey Performing Arts Center
22         New York City, Carnegie Hall, Isaac Stern Auditorium
24         Daytona Beach, FL, New Journal Center
25         Melbourne, FL King Center
26         Gainesville, FL, Phillips Center, University of Florida
27         Fort Lauderdale, FL, Broward Center
28         Stuart FL, Lyric Theater

March
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1          Fort Worth, TX, Bass Hall
3          Spring, TX, The Centrum
4          Flint, MI, Whiting Auditorium
5          Indianapolis, IN, Clowes Hall, Butler University
7          Portland, ME, Merrill Auditorium
9          Baton Rouge, LA, Louisiana State University
10         Huntsville, AL, Trinity United Methodist Church
11         Tuscaloosa, AL Moody Concert Hall, University of Alabama
12         Knoxville, TN, Tennessee Theatre