About the Event

Violinist Joshua Bell and vocalist Larisa Martínez present Voice and the Violin, exploring repertoire from classical art song and opera to musical theatre and selections by Puerto Rican and Spanish composers. 

Joshua Bell 

With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy®-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 2022–23 season included leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on tour in South America to Sao Paulo, Bogotá, and Montevideo, as well as in Europe, including Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Bell appeared in guest performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestre National de France, Sofia Philharmonic, and Franz Schubert Filharmonia, as well as a European tour with pianist Peter Dugan. In the United States, Bell performed alongside the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras. 

Bell was named 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America and a 2007 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He has been nominated for six Grammys® and received the 2007 Avery Fisher Prize. He has also received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and a Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1991 from the Jacobs School of Music. In 2000, he was named an “Indiana Living Legend.” He has performed for three U.S. presidents and the sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Bell also participated in former President Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, joining Cuban and U.S. musicians on a 2017 Live from Lincoln Center Emmy®-nominated PBS special, Joshua Bell: Seasons of Cuba, celebrating renewed cultural diplomacy between Cuba and the United States. 

Larisa Martínez 

Puerto Rican opera singer Larisa Martínez has been praised and sought after for her “smoky soprano” (Opera News), gracing many of the world’s top opera and concert stages, including recent debuts as a soloist at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, and the Hollywood Bowl. 

Martínez’s recent roles include Musetta in La Bohème (CulturArte); Violetta in La Traviata, conducted by Eugene Kohn (Wichita Grand Opera); Sophie alongside tenor Piotr Beczala in Werther (CulturArte); and Maria in West Side Story, conducted by Lawrence Foster with tenor Michael Fabiano (Festival Napa Valley). In 2019, Martínez made her Kennedy Center debut in recital and Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage debut, singing Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with the Athens Philharmonic under the baton of Yiannis Hadjiloizou. In 2016, she created the role of Isaura in the world premiere of Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini in Italy, conducted by Maestro Fabio Luisi and directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi. That same year, Martínez was invited as part of President Barack Obama’s artistic delegation to Cuba in an effort to expand cultural collaboration and friendships between the two countries, culminating in the Emmy®-nominated PBS special, Live from Lincoln Center: Seasons of Cuba, where she was showcased. In recent years, Martínez has toured with tenor Andrea Bocelli, debuting at Madison Square Garden, Hollywood Bowl, and throughout North America, South America, and Europe. 

In 2016, she won the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Audition in Puerto Rico, as well as the Angel Ramos Foundation Award and the Audience Prize. Soon after, she was invited by the Metropolitan Opera Guild 2018 Annual Gala as a guest artist to honor Anna Netrebko. In 2018, EastWest Sounds Studios chose and sampled her voice for its new virtual instrument software, “Voices of Opera,” used by composers and engineers worldwide. 

Sponsors

World Class Partner

Presenting Sponsor

The Dayton Fowler Grafman Endowment for Classical Music