Joshua Bell in 2026-27: Asia and Europe tours with Academy of St Martin in the Fields; conductor and soloist with New York Philharmonic; all-Beethoven program with New Jersey Symphony; European recital tour; and much more
Joshua Bell (photo: Sebastian Madej)
(September 2026) — Grammy-winning violinist and conductor Joshua Bell, CBE has been called “a true artist and intellectual whose music feeds both your brain and your heart” (Newsweek). He celebrates two personal milestones as the season begins: the 25th anniversary of the acquisition of his beloved 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin, and his upcoming 15th season as Music Director of London’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF). In 2026–27 Bell leads that orchestra on an extensive fall tour in Taiwan and China with a program of Beethoven, Dvořák, and Mozart (Oct 13–21), before reuniting with them in the New Year for a European tour of music by Beethoven, Dvořák, Bruch, Brahms, and Mendelssohn culminating back home in London (Jan 7–17). In his second season in the specially created role of Principal Guest Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony, Bell plays and conducts all-Beethoven programs in honor of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death (March 11–14). Bell also conducts the New York Philharmonic this season in Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, also leading Vivaldi’s Four Seasons from the violin as soloist (Jan 2 & 3).
As a concerto soloist in 2026–27, Bell begins with a focus on Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, performing the work with five orchestras across the U.S., including the Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta (Sep 16), Madison (Sep 18), Portsmouth (Sep 20), and Detroit (Sep 26), as well as the Pacific Symphony (Sep 24). The solo violin works of Max Bruch also loom large in Bell’s season. Bruch’s First Violin Concerto – which he also performs across Europe with ASMF – is the vehicle for performances with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (Nov 7); the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, with the performance also including selections from the newly orchestrated version of John Corigliano’s Tennessee Songs along with soprano Larisa Martínez (Feb 17), and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (May 6–9). Bell performs Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy this season as well: with the Sofia Philharmonic (Dec 13), and with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of his longtime friend and collaborator Alan Gilbert (Dec 16 & 17). A final focus honoring the composer’s anniversary year is Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, which in addition to Bell’s New Jersey Symphony performances takes him to five other U.S. orchestras, ending with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Christian Reif (March 30).
Apart from his orchestral engagements, Bell is an equally passionate performer of chamber music. In November, he is joined by a frequent recital partner, pianist Peter Dugan, for a European recital tour, with stops in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands before a performance at London’s Wigmore Hall (Nov 11–17). The violinist’s chamber performances this season are rounded out with more solo recitals in the U.S., and a series of “Violin and the Voice” recitals with Martínez, which will include the premiere of new short works by Kevin Puts and Enrique Bayoán Ríos-Escribano.
Bell also dedicates his range of experience wearing multiple hats in the classical music industry to one more important role, as a thought leader and educational innovator. A TED Talk he gave in Vancouver in 2025 featured the debut of his new ensemble, the Chamber Orchestra of America (COA), a group mixing emerging talent with seasoned professionals that he founded to foster the art of collaboration, be a foundation for career growth, and be a force for accessible music education and community engagement. Bell performs with the orchestra this season at The Soraya on the campus of Cal State Northridge (Feb 3).
Asian & European tours, new album release as Music Director of ASMF
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” (The Scotsman). Measures of the success of the partnership include a Grammy nomination, the extension of Bell’s contract through the 2027-28 season, and as of last season an honorary CBE recognizing Bell’s achievements with the orchestra. As the UK’s Arts Desk puts it: “Who needs a conductor with a leader-soloist of this calibre?”
As an upbeat to their 2026–27 season, Bell and ASMF have just released PAGANINI on Sony Classical, a digital-only album that features Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 – with an original cadenza by Bell – and Cantabile, arranged by James Stephenson for solo violin and chamber orchestra. Bell’s recording of Paganini’s Carnival of Venice, originally released on the Ladies in Lavender soundtrack, is included as a bonus track.
See a trailer for PAGANINI
In live performance, Bell and ASMF kick off their Asian tour in Taipei, before taking in Beijing, Shanghai, and other destinations in China with a program comprising Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, and Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, with Bell as soloist (Oct 13–21). Their second tour of the season together, in January, takes them to Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Stuttgart, and Erlangen before returning to London for a date at Cadogan Hall. They reprise Dvořák’s Violin Concerto on a program with Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony for the Stuttgart and London performances, with the rest of the stops featuring Bell in Bruch’s First Violin Concerto and Dvořák’s Romance in F minor, along with Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 (Jan 7–17).
New Jersey Symphony and Beethoven anniversary
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. To facilitate their ongoing collaboration, the orchestra created the role of Principal Guest Conductor for Bell, with his appointment extending through the 2028–29 season. In his first appearances in the specially created role last season, “Bell struck just the right note …, suggesting that this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship” (NJ.com). This season, they tour New Jersey with an all-Beethoven program – honoring the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death – in New Brunswick, Princeton, and Newark. As well as conducting the entire program, Bell is featured as soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, bookended by the Coriolan Overture and Seventh Symphony (March 11–14). Indeed, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto occupies a central place in Bell’s entire schedule surrounding the New Jersey concerts: he performs the work with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic (Feb 5), the Austin Symphony Orchestra (Feb 19 & 20), the Utah Symphony (March 17), the Toledo Symphony (March 19), and the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Christian Reif (March 30).
Expanding the repertoire and chamber performances
Conceived in the early days of the pandemic, The Elements is a five-movement suite for violin and orchestra commissioned by Bell from a roster of all-star composers: Jake Heggie, Jessie Montgomery, Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon, and Kevin Puts. The violinist premiered the entire work in 2023 with Alan Gilbert leading his NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, with numerous subsequent performances including with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl and a season-opening performance with the New York Philharmonic. The work was also recorded last season for future release by the Houston Symphony and Music Director Juraj Valčuha. This season includes a performance of the suite’s opening movement, Kevin Puts’s Earth, with the Pacific Symphony conducted by Music Director Alexander Shelley – who also led the work last season with both the Naples Philharmonic and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (Sep 24). The suite has met with a warm reception since its first performances, with the Financial Times commenting that “though new, [the work] seemed well-worn and comfortable for Bell and the musicians, with classic pleasures for the listener.” Earth itself was praised as “accessible, focused, and memorable” by the Chicago Classical Review, which also found Bell’s playing “never overly showy or ostentatious but was in service to the music at all times.”
When John Corigliano was awarded the 1999 Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Red Violin, he said, “You can write all the notes you want, but if someone doesn’t play them like a god they’ll never sound that way. And Joshua Bell, the great violinist, played them like a god.” Corigliano’s Tennessee Songs – based on texts of Tennessee Williams – was subsequently composed for Bell and his wife, soprano Larisa Martínez, commissioned by the Tucson Desert Song Festival and its president, Jeannette Segel, along with Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. The husband-and-wife pair premiered Tennessee Songs in Tucson along with accompanist Peter Dugan in 2025. This season, on a program with Bell’s performance of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and conductor José Luis Gomez, Bell, and Martínez debut selections from the in-progress orchestral version of Tennessee Songs. The 88-year-old composer has said that he expects the set to be his last major work (Feb 17).
Bell and Peter Dugan, referred to as a “dream team” by Bachtrack, reunite for more music by Corigliano in London’s Wigmore Hall this season (Nov 17), following a European tour that takes them to Turin (Nov 11); Venice (Nov 12); Steinfurt, Germany (Nov 14); and Amsterdam (Nov 15). Corigliano’s 1963 Violin Sonata shares the bill with Bell’s performance of a movement from Bach’s Partita No. 2 for unaccompanied violin, as well as violin sonatas by Beethoven and Saint-Saëns.
Later in the spring, Bell and Martínez present premieres of new short works by Kevin Puts and Enrique Bayoán Ríos-Escribano in their ongoing “Violin and the Voice” program at Virginia Tech (May 1). Further recitals together take them to San Antonio (April 4), Dartmouth (April 21), Florida’s Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival (April 23), and Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music (April 27).