Joshua Bell

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

Bell’s highlights in the 2023-24 season included an international tour of his newly-commissioned project, The Elements, featuring works by renowned living composers. The work received its premiere performances with the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Bell released his new album on Sony Classical, Butterfly Lovers, in summer 2023. He will also lead the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on tour in Australia and throughout the United States. He appeared as artist-in-residence with the NDR Elbphilharmonie, and as guest artist with the New Jersey Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Philadelphia Orchestra, and more.

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. The program included classical repertoire as well as new arrangements of beloved works. The special featured guest artists Larisa Martínez, Jeremy Denk, Peter Dugan, and Kamal Khan. In August 2020, Sony Classical released the companion album to the special, Joshua Bell: At Home With Music.

In 2011, Bell was named music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who founded 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 including recordings of Beethoven's Fourth and Seventh symphonies, an all-Bach album, For the Love of Brahms, and, most recently, Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, which was nominated for a 2019 Grammy Award.

Bell has performed for three American presidents and for the justices of the Supreme Court. He also participated in President Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ mission to Cuba, performing on an Emmy-nominated PBS Live “From Lincoln Center” special Joshua Bell: Seasons of Cuba to celebrate renewed diplomacy between Cuba and the United States.

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 Orchestra. At age 18, Bell signed with his first label, London Decca, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the following decades, Bell has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, named instrumentalist of the year by Musical America, named a young global leader by the World Economic Forum, and received the Avery Fisher Prize. He also received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and in 2000 was named an “Indiana living legend.”