"James Buswell is a persuasive advocate, combining muscle, mellowness and musicality." Daily Telegraph review of James Buswell playing Walter Piston's Violin Concertos Nos 1 and 2 for Naxos American Classics.
The American violinist James Buswell has enjoyed a distinguished career as concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor, lecturer and educator.
Since his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of seven, he has appeared with most of the major orchestras in the U.S. and abroad and also with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, George Szell, William Steinberg, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Zubin Mehta, Andre Previn, Erich Leinsdorf, Seiji Ozawa and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Buswell studied at the Juilliard School, where he was a pupil of Ivan Galamian, and at Harvard University, where his major field of study was Renaissance Art. For more than a decade he was a professor of violin and conductor at the Indiana University School of Music. His instrument is a Leveque Stradivarius of 1720.
In 1987, Mr. Buswell and his family moved to Massachusetts, where his teaching activities are centred at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He is frequently engaged as an Artist-in-Residence and Visiting Professor, most recently at Harvard University and Amherst College.
He has performed nearly one hundred works for violin and orchestra spanning three centuries. Formerly a member of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centre, Mr. Buswell appears frequently as a guest artist at the Lincoln Centre and at other music festivals such as those in Santa Fe, Marlboro and Sarasota as well as events in Italy and Australia.
James Buswell is as closely associated with new music as he has been with the standard repertoire. World premiÚre performances include works by Donald Erb, Charles Wourinen, Gian Carlo Menotti, Ned Rorem, Leon Kirchner, John Harbison, Gunther Schuller, William Bolcom, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Peter Schickele. Presently he is active in reviving lesser-known masterpieces from the 20th century by composers such as Martinu, Weill, Busoni and Respighi.
For Naxos American Classics, James Buswell has recorded Violin Concertos Nos 1 and 2 by Walter Piston. The disc received unrivalled attention and undivided praise from the critical press, including the much sought-after accolades of Editor's Choice by Gramophone Magazine, a Rosette of excellence from the Penguin Guide and the ten point rating by Repertoire.
August, 2001
