Joshua Bell and Larisa Martínez: "Voice and the Violin"

With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell CBE 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. In 2025 he was awarded an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to music.

Bell continued to champion the rediscovered Violin Concerto by Thomas de Hartmann in the 2025-2026 season, following his world premiere recording of the work. He gave its U.K. 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 the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, he led extensive tours, including returns to Vienna Konzerthaus and Carnegie Hall.

Other highlights included 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, 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, Dave Matthews, Anoushka Shankar, Regina Spektor, Sting, and Daniil Trifonov. He has made three 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 in former president Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, he headlined the subsequent Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special.

Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.

Puerto Rican opera singer Larisa Martínez is praised and sought after for her “smoky soprano” (Opera News), gracing top stages and collaborating with household names of today. 

Martínez has made orchestra appearances with Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as the Chicago, New Jersey, and Indianapolis symphonies. In 2019 she made both her Kennedy Center recital debut and Carnegie Hall debut, singing Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with the Athens Philharmonic. Internationally, she recently performed as soloist with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and made her debuts at Athens’ Herodeon Theater and Korea’s KSPO Dome. In April she premiered a new work written for her and violinist Joshua Bell by Academy Award-winning composer John Corigliano.

Martínez is a longtime touring partner of acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli, performing for packed houses such as the Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden. Her Voice and the Violin program, created with Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell, has visited the Ravinia Festival, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Verbier Festival, Pacific Symphony, and Colorado Symphony.

Martínez was invited as part of President Barack Obama’s artistic delegation to Cuba in 2016. The visit culminated in the Emmy-nominated PBS special, Live from Lincoln Center: Seasons of Cuba.

Her operatic roles include Violetta in La Traviata (Wichita Grand Opera), Sophie in Werther alongside tenor Piotr Beczala (Culturarte), and Maria in West Side Story with tenor Michael Fabiano (Festival Napa Valley). Martínez originated the role of Isaura in the world premiere of Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini in Italy, conducted by Maestro Fabio Luisi. That same year, she won the 2016 Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Audition in Puerto Rico. 

An advocate for accessible music education, Martínez is an artistic resident of Turnaround Arts, led by the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She is also passionate about representing her Boricua cultural heritage through projects and performances.