After his competition successes, Epstein launched his career as a soloist and over the next 40 years performed with many orchestras across the Continent: the
Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, RIAS Berlin,
Saarländischer Rundfunk, NDR Hamburg,
Bayerischer Rundfunk,
Bayerische Staatsoper,
Nürnberger Symphoniker,
Berliner Symphoniker, to mention just a few. He is especially known for his interpretations of Bach, Mozart, Paganini and Bartók and has given recitals in France, Germany, Belgium, England, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, the United States and Canada; Israel, Turkey, Iran and South Korea. Between 1971 and 2005, Epstein performed all 24 Paganini Caprices in concert six times. In 1997 he recorded them for the Agora label in two days.
Chamber music The
Bartholdy String Quartet was founded in 1968 by a group of young musicians performing and teaching at music academies in the German cities of Karlsruhe and Würzburg. When an accident forced their original viola player to resign, the group's first violinist,
Jörg-Wolfgang Jahn, decided to change instruments. Thus the Bartholdy Quartet was in need of a first violinist. In 1972, Epstein traveled to Linkenheim, near Karlsruhe, to meet with them. With Jahn playing viola, Annemarie Dengler-Speermann as the group's cellist, Max Speermann as second violin and Epstein as the new
primarius, they toured throughout Europe, North America and the near east to great acclaim. The group worked together from 1972 until 1978, earning the
Deutscher Schallplattenpreis and the
Grand Prix du disque for their recordings of Mendelssohn and Schubert. Later, from 1988 until 1993, Epstein served as musical director of the
Saarbrücker Kammermusiktage, an annual chamber music festival in Saarbrücken.
Teaching Joshua Epstein's violin teaching was influenced by the Hungarian violinist André Gertler and by the
Feldenkrais Method. Among his many teaching positions, Epstein has served as Professor of Violin at the
University of Music Würzburg (1974–1978),
Conservatoire de Strasbourg (1994–2005), the
Hochschule für Musik Saar (1978–present) and the
Dokuz Eylul University State Conservatory in
Izmir, Turkey (2012-2018). Epstein has given masterclasses in cities around the world, including Italy, Belgium, France (Moulin d'Andé), Turkey, South Korea,
et al. Epstein is the director of the annual
International Summer Academy Schwetzingen-Worms, an annual two-week music festival and master class founded in 2003. == Partial discography ==