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. 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 music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Bell’s highlights for the 2024-25 season included the release of two new albums: "Thomas De Hartmann Rediscovered," featuring the world premiere recording of Ukrainian composer Thomas De Hartmann's Violin Concerto, with conductor Dalia Stasevska and the INSO-Lviv Orchestra, released August 16, 2024, on Pentatone; as well as an album of Mendelssohn piano trios, which Bell recorded with longtime friends and collaborators Jeremy Denk and Steven Isserlis, released on August 30, 2024, on Sony Masterworks. Bell rejoined Denk and Isserlis in November 2024 for a series of Fauré chamber concerts at Wigmore Hall. He appeared as guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as conducted and played with the DSO Berlin.

Bell has commissioned and premiered works by John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Nicholas Maw. His recording of Maw’s Violin Concerto received a Grammy Award, and his work on the film soundtrack for The Red Violin garnered Corigliano an Academy Award. In 2023-24, Bell introduced The Elements, a commissioned suite featuring movements by renowned composers Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery, and Kevin Puts.

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. He has 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." His vast discography of 40 albums has garnered him Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone, and Opus Klassik awards.

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 one of Indiana's living legends.

Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He participated in President Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, which resulted in an Emmy-nominated PBS "Live from Lincoln Center" special.

Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.