Joshua Bell and ASMF

With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of our time. He has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and regularly appears as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor, and as the Music Director of London’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF).

Bell continues to champion the rediscovered Violin Concerto by Thomas de Hartmann in the 2025-26 season, following his world premiere recording of the work. He gives its UK premiere at London’s BBC Proms, its North American premiere with the New York Philharmonic, and its Canadian premiere during his season-long tenure as a Toronto Symphony Spotlight Artist.

With ASMF, he leads extensive tours, including returns to Vienna Konzerthaus and Carnegie Hall. Other highlights include his first appearances as Principal Guest Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony; an Asian tour with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra; trio programs with Steven Isserlis and Evgeny Kissin in the U.S. and Europe; and duo recitals with Jeremy Denk at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Ravinia Festival.

In 2011, Bell succeeded founder Sir Neville Marriner as Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He is also the Founder and Music Director of Chamber Orchestra of America (COA), which aims to empower the next generation of artists. 

Bell has commissioned and premiered works by John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, and Nicholas Maw. His recording of Maw’s Violin Concerto won a Grammy Award, and his work on the film

soundtrack for The Red Violin helped secure Corigliano’s Academy Award. Bell’s collaborators include Emanuel Ax, Chris Botti, Chick Corea, Renée Fleming, Josh Groban,

Lang Lang, Dave Matthews, Anoushka Shankar, Regina Spektor, Sting, and Daniil Trifonov. He has made three guest-star appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and numerous appearances on the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. His extensive discography has been recognized with Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone, and Opus Klassik awards.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell began playing the violin at age four, starting studies with his mentor, Josef Gingold, eight years later. At 14, Bell debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and at 17 he made his Carnegie Hall debut with the St. Louis Symphony.

He signed with his first label, London Decca, at 18, when he also received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then, Bell has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, named “Instrumentalist of

the Year” by Musical America, selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, and recognized with the Avery Fisher Prize.

He received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and, in 2000, was honored as an “Indiana Living Legend.” Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. After participating informer president Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural missionto Cuba, he headlined the subsequent Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special.

Joshua Bell appears by arrangement with IMG Artists (www.imgartists.com) and Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Mr. Bell records exclusively for Sony Classical - a MASTERWORKS label.

The position of the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is generously supported by the Berry Charitable Foundation.

Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.

--

Photo (c) Christian Meuwly