Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County presents
Academy of St Martin in the Fields With Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell, Music Director and Violin
Charles Ives
(1874-1954)
arr. Iain Farrington
Variations on "America"
Camille Saint-Saëns
(1835-1921)
Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Andantino quasi allegretto
III. Molto moderato e maestoso; Allegro non troppo
Joshua Bell, violin
—Intermission—
Robert Schumann
(1810-1856)
Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 38 ("Spring")
I. Andante un poco maestoso; Allegro molto vivace
II. Larghetto
III. Scherzo: molto vivace
IV. Allegro animato e grazioso
The position of Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is generously supported by the Berry Charitable Foundation.
ASMF’s work in the USA is kindly supported by the American Friends of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (President, Maria Cardamone).
Find out more about the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and keep in touch at ASMF.org.
Joshua Bell appears by arrangement with Park Avenue Artists (ParkAvenueArtists.com) and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Mr. Bell records exclusively for Sony Classical—a MASTERWORKS label.
Exclusive Management for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields: OPUS 3 ARTISTS
250 West 34th St., WorkLife Office Suite 313, New York, NY 10119 Opus3Artists.com
Joshua Bell
Photo courtesy Richard Lea-Hair.
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 and conductor.
In 2011, Bell was named music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who formed the orchestra in 1959. Bell’s history with the Academy dates to 1986, when he first recorded the Bruch and Mendelssohn concertos with Marriner and the orchestra. Bell has since led the orchestra on several albums, most recently Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, which was nominated for a 2019 Grammy Award. In April 2024, the Academy announced the extension of Bell's music director contract through the 2027-28 season.
Bell has commissioned and premiered new works by John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Behzad Ranjbaran and Nicholas Maw—his recording of Maw’s Violin Concerto received a Grammy Award. In 2023-24, Bell introduced his newly commissioned concerto project, The Elements, a suite featuring movements by five renowned living composers: Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery and Kevin Puts. The work received its premiere performances with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
Bell has collaborated with peers including Renée Fleming, Daniil Trifonov, Emanuel Ax, Lang Lang, Chick Corea, Regina Spektor, Chris Botti, Anoushka Shankar, Dave Matthews, Josh Groban and Sting, among others.
In 1998, Bell worked with composer John Corigliano on the film soundtrack for The Red Violin, which elevated Bell to a household name and garnered Corigliano an Academy Award. Since then, Bell has appeared on several other film soundtracks, including Ladies in Lavender (2004) and Defiance (2008). Bell commemorated the 20th anniversary of The Red Violin in 2018-19, bringing the film with live orchestra to various festivals and the New York Philharmonic.
Bell appeared three times as a guest star on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and made numerous appearances on the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. He is also featured on six Live From Lincoln Center specials, as well as a PBS Great Performances episode, Joshua Bell: West Side Story in Central Park. In summer 2020, PBS presented Joshua Bell: At Home With Music, a nationwide broadcast produced entirely in lockdown, by Tony and Emmy Award-winning director Dori Berinstein. In August 2020, Sony Classical released the companion album to the special, Joshua Bell: At Home With Music (Live).
For his contributions to music education, Bell received the 2022 Paez Medal of Art, bestowed by the Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts and the 2019 Glashütte Original Music Festival Award, presented in conjunction with the Dresden Music Festival. In 2021, Bell announced his new partnership with Trala, the tech-powered violin learning app. Bell maintains additional active involvement with Education Through Music and Turnaround Arts, and in 2014, mentored and performed alongside National YoungArts Foundation string musicians in an HBO Family Documentary special, Joshua Bell: A YoungArts Masterclass.
Bell’s ongoing partnership with Embertone, the leading virtual instrument sampling company, on the Joshua Bell Virtual Violin, a sampler created for producers, engineers, artists and composers, is widely considered the best virtual instrument of its kind. Bell also collaborated on the Joshua Bell VR experience with Sony PlayStation 4 VR, which features Bell performing with pianist Sam Haywood in full 360-degrees VR.
As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums, garnering Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone and OPUS KLASSIK awards. Bell's 2023 release, Butterfly Lovers, features the eponymous Violin Concerto by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, newly arranged for a traditional Chinese orchestra conducted by Tsung Yeh. Bell’s 2019 Amazon Originals Chopin Nocturne arrangement was the first classical release of its kind on Amazon Music. Bell’s 2013 album with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, featuring Bell directing Beethoven’s Fourth and Seventh Symphonies, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
In 2007, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post story, centered on Bell performing incognito in a Washington, D.C., metro station, sparked an ongoing conversation regarding artistic reception. The feature inspired Kathy Stinson’s 2013 children’s book, The Man With the Violin, and an animated film with music by Academy Award-winning composer Anne Dudley. Stinson’s subsequent 2017 book, Dance With the Violin, illustrated by Dušan Petričić, offers a glimpse into one of Bell’s competition experiences at age 12. Bell debuted The Man With the Violin festival at the Kennedy Center in 2017, and, in March 2019, presented a Man With the Violin family concert with the Seattle Symphony.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell began playing the violin at age 4, and at age 12, began studies with his mentor, Josef Gingold. At age 14, Bell debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 17 with the St. Louis Symphony. At age 18, Bell signed with his first label, London Decca, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the years following, Bell has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, deemed a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum and received the Avery Fisher Prize. He has also received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and a Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1991 from the Jacobs School of Music. In 2000, he was named an “Indiana Living Legend.”
Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He participated in former president Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, joining Cuban and American musicians on an Emmy-nominated PBS Live From Lincoln Center special, Joshua Bell: Seasons of Cuba, celebrating renewed cultural diplomacy between Cuba and the United States.
Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Photo courtesy Richard Lea-Hair.
Founded in 1958 by Sir Neville Marriner, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has evolved into a musical powerhouse, an orchestra renowned across the world for its commitment to the musical freedom of its players and the sharing of joyful, inspiring performances. Today, with music director Joshua Bell, ASMF’s player-led approach empowers every member of the orchestra. This creates a direct line and electrifying connection between the orchestra and its audiences, resulting in ambitious and collaborative performances that transcend the more traditional conductor-led model.
ASMF is the principal orchestral partner of St Martin-in-the-Fields church, which is the orchestra's historic home. Beyond the concert hall, the Academy's commitment to a social purpose manifests in impactful projects that harness the power of music to empower people. The Academy has a longstanding history of work that connects with people experiencing homelessness, and its education projects develop autonomy and creativity among emerging musicians worldwide.
The Academy's collective artistic responsibility fosters enduring collaborations with world-renowned soloists, exemplified by its 15-year partnership with Bell. These collaborations showcase the benefits of trust and true artistic collaboration developed over time.
Building on its rich global legacy, the Academy remains one of the world’s most recorded orchestras, igniting a love for classical music in people around the world through live performance and digital initiatives. Today, it continues a busy international touring program alongside a significant presence in the UK, making it one of the country’s most celebrated cultural exports.
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Academy of St Martin in the Fields Administration
Chief Executive Officer, Annie Lydford
Executive Director, Performance & Planning, Tim Davy
Head of Concerts & Tours, Hannah Bache
Concerts & Tours Manager, Anna Galloway
Orchestra Personnel Manager, Charlotte Templeman
Performance & Projects Assistant, Esme Sullivan
Project Manager, Alex Tighe
Stage Manager (US Tour 2026), Michael Pattison
Stage Manager (Vail, CO and Winona, MN), Hal Hutchison
Librarian, Helen Harris
Director of Development & External Affairs, Chris Martin
Head of UK Development, Amy Scott
Development Manager (American Friends), Georgina Hamilton
Marketing & Communications Manager, Rose Hall
Development & Marketing Coordinator, William Lloyd
Head of Social Purpose, Callum Given
Head of Audiences and Community, Charlotte Cosgrove
Finance Manager, Philip Knight
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
For Opus 3 Artists
Robert Berretta, Managing Director
Benjamin Maimin, Chief Operating Officer
Jemma Lehner, Associate Manager
Miles Bentley, Associate
Leslie Beatrice, Director, Marketing & Creative
For the Academy of St Martin in the Fields US Tour
Leonard Stein, Consulting Producer
Peter Katz, Manager, Touring Logistics
John Pendleton, Company Manager
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