Joshua Bell

Joshua Bell has enchanted audiences worldwide with his breathtaking virtuosity and tone of rare beauty. An Avery Fisher Prize recipient and Musical America's 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year, Mr. Bell was recently appointed music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Mr. Bell came to national attention at age 14 in his debut with Riccardo Muti and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Today, he is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestra leader, and composer who performs his own cadenzas in several major concertos.

Bell's 2012 summer appearances include the premier of a new concerto for violin and double bass by Edgar Meyer to be performed by Bell and Meyer at Tanglewood, Aspen and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition Bell will appear at the Festival del Sole, Ravinia, Verbier, Salzburg, Saratoga and Mostly Mozart festivals. He will kick off the San Francisco Symphony's fall season followed by performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston, Seattle, Omaha, Cincinnati and Detroit Symphonies. Fall highlights also include a tour of South Africa, a European tour with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and a European recital tour with Sam Haywood.

In 2013 Bell will appear in a US tour with the Cleveland Orchestra and a European tour with the New York Philharmonic as well as performances with the Tucson, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Nashville Symphony Orchestras.

Since making his first LP recording at 18, Mr. Bell has recorded more than 36 CDs, winning Mercury, Grammy, Gramophone, and ECHO Klassik awards. He has made critically acclaimed recordings of works by Sibelius and Goldmark; the Beethoven and Mendelssohn concertos, both featuring his own cadenzas; and the Oscar-winning soundtrack to the film The Red Violin. Recent releases include At Home with Friends, the Defiance soundtrack, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, his new album of French sonatas with Jeremy Denk, French Impressions, will be released in January 2012.

Mr. Bell received his first violin at age four, and by age 12 was serious about the instrument, thanks to violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold. He performs on the 1713 Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius.