Joshua Michael Schrei

Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age fame has scored and soundtracked a new film called ‘In The Fade’ that premiered this week at the Cannes Film Festival.
As Variety reports, the film is directed by German filmmaker Fatih Akin. ‘In The Fade’ is a drama that follows a woman who takes revenge after her son and husband are murdered by the neo-Nazis of the National Socialist Underground group.
Akin revealed why Homme ended up scoring the picture. He said, “That was a big surprise. When I was writing this, I was listening to a lot of music by Queens of the Stone Age. I had the feeling that this could be the music that the character was listening to, it has a self-destructive attitude and somehow the film is about self-destruction.”…

With Musical Gifts, world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell imagines friends coming to his home during the holiday and joining in on songs that celebrate the warmth, beauty and magic of the season. Following the concept of his critically acclaimed 2009 album, At Home with Friends, Bell is paired with a variety of special guests including Gloria Estefan, Alison Krauss, Kristin Chenoweth, saxophonist Chris Botti, jazz greats Chick Corea and Branford Marsalis, opera stars Plácido Domingo and Renée Fleming, Michael Feinstein and a cappella group Straight No Chaser.

Perahia formed the first incarnation of his full time group Joshua after quitting his studies in pre-med at UCLA in the late seventies. Joshua's 1983 Enigma debut, The Hand Is Quicker Than The Eye, preceded the Jeff Fenholt fronted Polydor release Surrender from 1986. After recruiting a new vocalist in Rob Rock (Impellitteri), Perahia returned to the studio and recorded the polished melodic metal of the critically acclaimed Intense Defense (which came out on RCA Europe in 1988). Seven long years passed – that included a stint in Jaguar with vocalist Robyn Kyle Basauri (Red Sea, Die Happy) – before he put together his new group, M Pire, and its full length debut Chapter One. Originally released on Long Island Records in 1995 (and soon to go out of print when Long Island went out of business), Chapter One was re-issued in 2001 on M&K Sound – under the new heading Joshua Perahia as opposed to M Pire – and for a second time in 2008 (but with the track “Bad Man” omitted).

Handel's Old Testament oratorios can be difficult to tell apart–tenor Israelite hero, bass enemy or éminence grise, soprano ingenue, and alto priest or youth. What distinguishes Joshua? Real characters: tenor Joshua, confident to the point of conceit; grizzled old general Caleb, wistfully facing retirement; alto Othniel, an excited young warrior/lover fighting battles to win Caleb's giddy daughter, Achsah. Joshua's highlights are the showpiece arias. James Bowman sails through Othniel's impetuous "Let danger surround me"; Emma Kirkby (one of the best ornamenters in the business) charms and fascinates in Achsah's "Oh, had I Jubal's lyre" and "Hark! 'tis the linnet"; George Ainsley is a Joshua both vigorous and graceful, the chorus and the brass are stunning in "Glory to God" as they bring the walls of Jericho tumbling down. –Matthew Westphal