Joshua Bell in 2025-26: TED Talk video release; de Hartmann concerto in London, NYC, Boston, & Toronto; New Jersey Symphony conducting post; U.S. & European tours as MD of Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; more
(August 2025) — “A true artist and intellectual whose music feeds both your brain and your heart” (Newsweek), Grammy-winning violinist and conductor Joshua Bell remains a double threat on the international music scene next season. Following his recent Diapason d’Or-winning world premiere recording of the rediscovered Violin Concerto by Thomas de Hartmann, Bell gives the work’s UK premiere at London’s BBC Proms; its North American premiere with the New York Philharmonic; its Canadian premiereduring a season-long tenure as the Toronto Symphony’s Spotlight Artist; and performances with the Boston Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic. He kicks off his new four-season appointment as the inaugural Principal Guest Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony, and, in his 14th season as Music Director of London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, leads extensive tours on both sides of the Atlantic, with returns to the Vienna Konzerthaus and New York’s Carnegie Hall. As a concerto soloist, he champions his five-movement commissioning project, The Elements, with the Houston Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra; performs Saint-Saëns with the Baltimore and Oregon Symphonies; and alternates Saint-Saëns with Brahms on an Asian tour with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. An avid recitalist, Bell joins Steven Isserlis and Evgeny Kissin for trio programs in New York, Kansas City, Paris, Vienna, and Prague; reunites with Jeremy Denk for duo recitals at L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Ravinia Festival; appears in London, Barcelona, and Oslo with Alasdair Beatson; and tours the U.S. with Shai Wosner. Meanwhile, August 19, 2025 marks the worldwide public release of Bell’s TED Talkabout the power of live orchestras in today’s tech-filled world. Originally presented at the TED2025 conference, Bell’s talk featured the debut performance of Chamber Orchestra of America, the new ensemble he has founded to help foster the next generation of professional musicians.
TED Talk and launch of Chamber Orchestra of America
With a theme of “Humanity Reimagined,” TED2025 brought together more than 80 speakers and 1,800 attendees this past April in Vancouver, to consider our role as humans in the age of artificial intelligence. Bell’s fellow speakers included poet Salome Agbaroji, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, economist Roland Fryer, and experimental cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. To illustrate his message about the value of live orchestral performance, Bell’s own talk featured the first performance by Chamber Orchestra of America (COA), of which he is the Founderand Music Director. By bringing together emerging talent and seasoned professionals, he intends COA to be a leader in the art of collaboration, a foundation for career growth, and a force for accessible music education and community engagement. Through COA, Bell hopes ultimately to cultivate world-class artists and life-long advocates for the transformative power of music.
Rediscovered de Hartmann concerto in NYC, Boston, Toronto, Oslo, & London
Composer Thomas de Hartmann (1884–1956) studied with legendary Russians Arensky, Taneyev, and Rimsky-Korsakov, but his own music draws on many influences, reflecting his eventful itinerant life. Born and raised in what is now Ukraine, he lived in St. Petersburg, Munich, Tbilisi, Constantinople, and Berlin, before settling in Paris and finally emigrating to New York. It was in the German-occupied French capital that he sought refuge in an abandoned building to compose his Violin Concerto (1943), and the work reflects its wartime origins; as The Guardian reports, “De Hartmann’s klezmer-inflected score was deeply influenced by his distress at the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, and especially by the fate of its Jewish citizens.” Having fallen into obscurity after the composer’s death, the concerto has only recently been rediscovered. Yet, Bell recalls:
“As I started exploring the concerto, I was immediately struck by the depth of emotion it conveys, and I was astonished that such a powerful work could have escaped me and most classical music listeners until now. This violin concerto is both heart-wrenching and uplifting, and is as gripping and relevant today as it was when it was composed in 1943.”
Last summer, the violinist partnered with Ukrainian-born Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska – chief conductor of Finland’s Lahti Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and a 2023 New York Times “breakout star” – to make the world premiere recording of de Hartmann’s concerto for the Pentatonelabel. As well as winning the prestigious Diapason d’Or, this inspired glowing praise from outlets like The Strad, which observed:
“Bell delivers an outstanding performance of the Violin Concerto, which brims with burnished intensity, each note exquisitely shaded as he soars to the highest registers, offering piquant inflections to the melodies. The technically challenging fast passages are elegantly shaped and dispatched with panache.”
Bell continues to champion the rediscovered work this fall. He reunites with Stasevskafor a series of high-profile international performances, giving the concerto’s UK premiere at London’s BBC Proms (Aug 22), a performance with the Oslo Philharmonic(Sep 4), the North American premiere with the New York Philharmonic (Nov 6–8), and the Canadian premiere with the Toronto Symphony (Nov 13 & 15), in his first concerts as the orchestra’s 2025-26 Spotlight Artist. Finally, Bell reprises de Hartmann’s work under the baton of Jonathon Heyward for three performances with the Boston Symphony (Nov 20–22).
U.S. & European tours as Music Director of London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Since succeeding Sir Neville Marriner as Music Director of London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (ASMF) in 2011, Bell has “brought a new bite and vigour to the band’s well-established aristocratic nobility” that makes for “captivating music-making” (The Scotsman). Indeed, the success of the partnership has been recognized with a Grammy nomination and the extension of Bell’s contract through the 2027-28 season. In their 14th season together, Bell helms the orchestra on extensive tours on both sides of the Atlantic. Taking them to the great concert halls of Hamburg, Hannover, Essen, Luxembourg, Stuttgart, Erlangen, Vienna, Frankfurt, Cologne, and London (Jan 8–20), their European tour programs feature Schumann’s First Symphony (“Spring”), led by Bell from the violin, and three concertante works, for all of which he takes center stage: Brahms’s sole Violin Concerto, Saint-Saëns’s Third, and Kevin Puts’s Earth, the opening movement of Bell’s commissioned suite The Elements. Describing Earth as “accessible, focused, and memorable,” the Chicago Classical Review found that Bell’s “playing was never overly showy or ostentatious but was in service to the music at all times.”
Next, Bell brings the orchestra to the United States for performances at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall (March 1), New York’s Carnegie Hall (March 5), and the key venues of 13 additional cities in California, Virginia, Maryland, Michigan, Iowa, and Florida (Feb 24–March 16). Their multiple U.S. programs feature Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony and Dvořák’s Eighth, led by Bell from the violin, as well as the Brahms Violin Concerto and Saint-Saëns’s Third, with Bell as soloist.
When Bell and the ASMF last toured the States, their San Francisco performance drew a five-star review from Bachtrack, which marveled:
“What was unique about Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields’ concert … was its depth and delivery of life. … It was as if the music expanded as it unfolded, and we were elasticized by it, ready to go wherever it led. Bell and the orchestra in perfect tandem, Bell’s playing itself becoming the conductor as he plied his bow. … Clearly, the ASMF is a vibrant, living unit, each section tightly connected to its counterparts.”
As the UK’s Arts Desk puts it: “Who needs a conductor with a leader-soloist of this calibre?”
First season as Principal Guest Conductor of New Jersey Symphony
For the past three decades, Bell has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with the New Jersey Symphony. However, it was not until fall 2023 that he first led the orchestra as both soloist and conductor, in a collaborative week of music-making that sparked the idea for their continued partnership. That idea comes to fruition next season, which marks Bell’s first as the orchestra’s inaugural Principal Guest Conductor. Extending through the 2028-29 season, this newly created role will see him appear as conductor, leader, and soloist for at least one program weekend with the New Jersey Symphony each season. To kick off the new appointment, Bell takes the orchestra on a Garden State tour of Newark, Princeton, and Morristown, on which he conducts Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, leads the same composer’s Hebrides Overture from the violin, and takes center stage for a concerto to be announced (May 14–17).
Season-long Toronto Symphony Orchestra residency
Bell’s other new, multi-faceted appointment is as a 2025-26 Spotlight Artist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, to which he has regularly returned since making his debut with the ensemble back in 1988. After launching this season-long tenure with the Canadian premiere of de Hartmann’s concerto (Nov 13 & 15; see above), Bell completes it with a second program next spring. This showcases his strengths as a conductor, with both the Egmont Overture and Seventh Symphony by Beethoven and an orchestral arrangement of Adoration by Florence Price, as well as presenting him as the soloist in Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, a work for which, as The New York Times puts it, there is “no finer, more persuasive advocate” (March 26, 28, & 29).
Concertos: Saint-Saëns on three continents, Brahms in Asia, & The Elements in North America
Bell devotes his remaining orchestral appearances to three very different concertos. As on his upcoming ASMF tours, his priorities this fall are Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Saint-Saëns’s Third. He performs Saint-Saëns with the Baltimore Symphony under Jonathon Heyward for the orchestra’s season-opening Gala Celebration weekend (Sep 19 & 20), as well as with the Oregon Symphony (Sep 16), Hanoi’s Sun Symphony (Oct 31), and Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, in concerts led by Music Director Alan Gilbert (Oct 16 & 17). With Gilbert and the German orchestra, he goes on to feature both Brahms and Saint–Saëns on an extensive Asian tour (Oct 22–29).
Then, next spring, for returns to Florida’s Naples Philharmonic (April 2–4), Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (April 8 & 9), and the Houston Symphony (May 7–10), Bell reprises The Elements, the suite he commissioned from five American composers at the top of their game: Jake Heggie, Musical America’s 2024 Composer of the Year; Jessie Montgomery, Performance Today’s 2025 Classical Woman of the Year; seven-time Grammy winner Edgar Meyer; and Pulitzer Prize laureates Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts. Since Bell gave its first performances in the 2023-24 season, the concerto has been warmly received. The San Francisco Classical Voice praised its “beauty and atmosphere,” while the Financial Times concluded:
“Even for composers known for their way with a lyrical line and satisfying harmonies, the fit between the movements was remarkable. Each was imaginative and distinctive while also flowing naturally from one to the other. … Bell play[ed] with his typical singing tone, with long, elegant phrases even in the fastest music. … Though new, [the work] seemed well-worn and comfortable for Bell and the musicians, with classic pleasures for the listener.”
Chamber collaborations with Isserlis, Kissin, and Denk
A dedicated recitalist and chamber artist, Bell completes his season with a range of solo and chamber performances on both sides of the Atlantic. Highlights include duo recitals with Avery Fisher Prize-winning pianist Jeremy Denk at Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (June 3) and Illinois’s Ravinia Festival (June 5), and piano trios by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Solomon Rosowsky with British cellist Steven Isserlisand Grammy-winning Russian-born pianist Evgeny Kissin in Prague (Sep 29), Vienna (Oct 3), Paris (Oct 6), Kansas City (May 28), and at New York’s Carnegie Hall (May 31). Both Denk and Isserlis are regular chamber partners of Bell’s, and the three recently reunited at New England’s Rockport Chamber Music Festival and New York’s 92nd Street Y for works by Fauré, whose chamber music they have recorded for future release. Last year, after a similar program at Aspen, Seen and Heard International reported:
“Their camaraderie and musical unanimity brought extra depth to an evening of Fauré chamber music. … At times the combined sound of Bell’s and Isserlis’s Stradivarius instruments … approached the richness of a full orchestra in Fauré’s ultra-Romantic harmonic and melodic style.”
Bell also joins pianist Alasdair Beatson for sonatas by Schubert, Grieg, and Prokofiev in London, Barcelona, and Oslo (Feb 11–15); tours the U.S. with pianist Shai Wosner, appearing in San Francisco; Boston; Orem, UT; Carmel, IN; and Kalamazoo, MI (April 19–26); and performs his special “Voice and the Violin” program with his wife, soprano Larisa Martínez, in Urbana, IL (April 17).
Joshua Bell: 2025-26 engagements
Aug 22
London, UK
BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall)
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska
DE HARTMANN: Violin Concerto (UK premiere)
Sep 4
Oslo, Norway
Oslo Philharmonic / Dalia Stasevska
DE HARTMANN: Violin Concerto
Sep 16
Portland, OR
Oregon Symphony / David Danzmayr
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3
Sep 19 & 20: Concerts with Baltimore Symphony / Jonathon Heyward
Sep 19: Bethesda, MD (Opening Night)
Sep 20: Baltimore, MD (Gala)
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3
MASSENET: “Méditation” from Thaïs (with BSO OrchKids and members of Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras)
Sep 29–Oct 6: European tour with Steven Isserlis, cello; Evgeny Kissin, piano
Sep 29: Prague, Czech Republic (Czech Chamber Music Society)
Oct 3: Vienna, Austria (Musikverein)
Oct 6: Paris, France (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées)
ROSOWSKY: Fantastic Dance on Hebrew Themes for piano trio
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Trio in A minor
Oct 16 & 17
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alan Gilbert
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3
Oct 22–29: Asian tour with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alan Gilbert
Oct 22: Seoul, South Korea
Oct 23: Daegu, South Korea
Oct 25: Taipei, Taiwan
Oct 26: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Oct 28 & 29: Shanghai, China (China Shanghai International Arts Festival)
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto (Oct 22, 23, 26, & 29)
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3 (Oct 25 & 28)
Oct 31
Hanoi, Vietnam
Sun Symphony Orchestra / Olivier Ochanine
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3
Nov 6–8
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic / Dalia Stasevska
DE HARTMANN: Violin Concerto (North American premiere)
Nov 13 & 15
Toronto, Canada
Toronto Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska
DE HARTMANN: Violin Concerto (Canadian premiere)
Nov 20–22
Boston Symphony Orchestra / Jonathon Heyward
DE HARTMANN: Violin Concerto (Boston premiere)
Jan 8–20: European tour with Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Jan 8: Hamburg, Germany
Jan 9: Hannover, Germany
Jan 11: Essen, Germany
Jan 12: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Jan 13: Stuttgart, Germany
Jan 14: Erlangen, Germany
Jan 15: Vienna, Austria (Konzerthaus)
Jan 17: Frankfurt, Germany
Jan 18: Cologne, Germany
Jan 20: London, UK
Programs to include:
Kevin PUTS: Earth (from The Elements)
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto
SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No. 3
R. SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 1, “Spring”
Feb 11–15: European recital tour with Alasdair Beatson, piano
Feb 11: Barcelona, Spain (Palau de la Música)
Feb 13: London, UK (Wigmore Hall)
Feb 15: Oslo, Norway (Oslo Opera House)
Program to include:
SCHUBERT: Violin Sonata in A, “Grand duo”
GRIEG: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
PROKOFIEV: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D
Feb 24–March 16: U.S. tour with Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Feb 24: Palm Springs, CA
Feb 26: Northridge, CA
Feb 27: Costa Mesa, CA
Feb 28: Davis, CA
March 1: San Francisco, CA
March 3: Charlottesville, VA
March 5: New York, NY (Carnegie Hall)
March 6: North Bethesda, MD
March 7: Newport News, VA
March 8: Virginia Beach, VA
March 10: Saginaw, MI
March 11: Iowa City, IA
March 14: Miami, FL
March 15: Sarasota, FL
March 16: Vero Beach, FL
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto
R. SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 1, “Spring”
March 26, 28 & 29
Toronto, Canada
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
BEETHOVEN: Overture to Egmont
BRUCH: Violin Concerto No. 1
PRICE (orch. Jim Gray): Adoration
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7
April 2–4
Naples, FL
Naples Philharmonic / Alexander Shelley
The Elements (Kevin PUTS: Earth; Edgar MEYER: Water; Jake HEGGIE: Fire; Jennifer HIGDON: Air; Jessie MONTGOMERY: Space)
April 8 & 9
Ottawa, Canada
National Arts Centre Orchestra / Alexander Shelley
The Elements (Kevin PUTS: Earth; Edgar MEYER: Water; Jake HEGGIE: Fire; Jennifer HIGDON: Air; Jessie MONTGOMERY: Space)
April 17
Urbana, IL
“Voice and the Violin”
Recital with Larisa Martínez, soprano, and Peter Dugan, piano
April 19–26: U.S. recital tour with Shai Wosner, piano
April 19: San Francisco, CA (Davies Symphony Hall)
April 21: Orem, UT (Noorda Center for the Performing Arts)
April 23: Carmel, IN (Center for the Performing Arts)
April 24: Kalamazoo, MI (The Gilmore)
April 26: Boston, MA (Celebrity Series of Boston; Symphony Hall)
Program to include:
SCHUBERT: Violin Sonata in A, “Grand Duo”
GRIEG: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
PROKOFIEV: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D
May 7–10
Houston, TX
Houston Symphony Orchestra / Juraj Valčuha
The Elements (Kevin PUTS: Earth; Jennifer HIGDON: Air; Edgar MEYER: Water; Jake HEGGIE: Fire; Jessie MONTGOMERY: Space)
May 14–17: New Jersey tour with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
May 14: Newark, NJ
May 15: Princeton, NJ
May 16: Newark, NJ
May 17: Morristown, NJ
Program to include:
MENDELSSOHN: Hebrides Overture
MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 4, “Italian”
May 28 & 31: U.S. dates with Steven Isserlis, cello; Evgeny Kissin, piano
May 28: Kansas City, MO (Harriman-Jewell Series)
May 31: New York, NY (Carnegie Hall)
ROSOWSKY: Fantastic Dance on Hebrew Themes for piano trio
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Trio in A minor
June 3 & 5: U.S. duo recitals with Jeremy Denk, piano
June 3: Los Angeles, CA (Walt Disney Concert Hall)
June 5: Highland Park, IL (Ravinia Festival)