Joshua Bell

Violin

Music Director, Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Biography

With a career spanning almost four decades, GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era. Bell has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and continues to maintain engagements as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor and as the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Bell’s highlights in the 2023-24 season include an international tour of his newly-commissioned project, The Elements, featuring works by renowned composers representing each of the five elements. Composers include Jake Heggie (Fire), Jennifer Higdon (Air), Edgar Meyer (Water), Jessie Montgomery (Space), and Kevin Puts (Earth). The work will receive its premiere performances with the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Bell will also release his new album on Sony Classical, Butterfly Lovers, in summer 2023. The record features the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, newly arranged for a traditional Chinese orchestra conducted by Tsung Yeh. Bell will also lead the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on tour in Australia and throughout the United States. Bell appears as artist-in-residence this season with the NDR Elbphilharmonie, and as guest artist with the New Jersey Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and more.

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Recent News

The BBC Proms are Back!

The BBC Proms are back! The world’s biggest classical music festival features six weeks of live music from 30 July through 11 September. The 52 concerts will be performed in front of live audiences, and be broadcast on BBC TV and radio channels, BBC Sounds and...

Reviews

“Mr. Bell doesn’t stand in anyone’s shadow.”

The New York Times

“Joshua Bell is the greatest American violinist active today.”

The Boston Herald

More Reviews

“Most perfect interpreter of this generation.”

Houston Chronicle

“Joshua Bell will be the one remembered in 50 years’ time.”

The Strad

“The presence of Mr. Bell, one of the world’s most popular classical musicians and a virtuoso refreshingly traditional in his preference for a sweet, singing tone and tasteful vibrato in Mozart, surely accounted for the boisterous crowd that attended the sold-out evening concert.”

The New York Times

“The American violinist with movie-star good looks has emerged as one of the finest musicians of his generation, whose interpretations can be seriously set beside and favorably compared to players twice his age. Dead players too. “

The Washington Post

“Bell’s big sound is consistently beautiful, round, focused and unfailingly in tune, and he lavishes it in equal measure on all the music he plays.”

The Washington Post