Joshua Bell with Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Academy of St Martin in the Fields Joshua Bell, violin

Orchestral Series

Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 6pm Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater

Joshua Bell, Academy of St Martin in the Fields Music Director and acclaimed violinist, concludes the residency with a performance of Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, alongside Schumann’s joyful Symphony No. 1, Spring.

Media Sponsor:

Joshua Bell, violin/director

IVES, arr. Iain Farrington Variations on America

SAINT-SAËNS Violin Concerto No. 3
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 1, Spring

All artists, programs, and pricing subject to change.

Variations on America (1892, arr. 2026)

Charles Ives grew up
surrounded by musical open mindedness
—or, better put,
open-earedness. His father,
a Connecticut bandmaster, reveled in
musical coincidences that most people
found revolting—playing the melody
of a tune in one key and its harmony
in another, for example, or savoring
the overlapping sounds of separate
bands playing simultaneously on a
parade ground. Charlie grew up with
the resultant polytonality sounding
logical to his ears, and at the age of 17
he composed his own experimental
masterpiece Variations on America.

One can only imagine what went
through the minds of the audience in
the pews of the Methodist church in
Brewster, New York, when he let loose
with this piece from the organ loft on
February 17, 1892. What must they have
thought of these five variations on the
well-known patriotic tune—slithering
chromaticism and grinding bitonality,
bumptious rhythms befitting a dance
hall more than a Methodist church,
allusions to such musical genres
as march, polonaise, and ragtime?
Not long after writing Variations on
America, Ives went off to Yale, where
his composition teacher Horatio Parker
tried to rein in his innovative proclivities
by imposing time-honored classical
training. Parker succeeded only
provisionally, and Ives would go on to
explore the radical path he had already
begun to chart in Variations on America.

Much played as an organ piece,
this work also gained fame in a
symphonic arrangement made in 1946
by William Schuman. In this concert,
however, we hear a new version for
chamber orchestra made by the
hard-working British pianist, organist,
composer, and arranger Iain Farrington.
He created this arrangement for the
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields,
which unveiled it earlier this year.

Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61 (1880) CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921

Camille Saint-Saëns was ten
when he played his formal debut
recital at Paris’ Salle Pleyel, a program
that included piano concertos by
Mozart and Beethoven—after which
he offered to play any of Beethoven’s
piano sonatas from memory, as an
encore. “He knows everything, but
lacks inexperience,” lamented his friend
Hector Berlioz.

He produced six works for
violin and orchestra, of which three
were written for, dedicated to, and
premiered by the Spanish virtuoso
Pablo de Sarasate, including the Violin
Concerto No. 3, unveiled in 1880.
Sarasate’s advice surely accounts
for some of the violinistic fluency
displayed in the Third Concerto; and
the last measures of the second
movement, in which the soloist plays
stratospheric arpeggios in harmonics,
seem crafted to reflect Sarasate’s
much-remarked ability to negotiate
such passages with unusual aplomb.
Saint-Saëns later wrote: “Those who
attended my Monday musical soirées
have not forgotten the brilliant effect
produced by my distinguished friend.
This was so much the case that for
several years after no violinists could
be persuaded to perform at my home,
so terrified were they of the idea of
inviting comparison. Nor did he shine
by his talent alone, but also by his
brilliant intellect and the inexhaustible
animation of his conversation, which
was always interesting and suggestive.”

The Third Concerto quickly
entered the repertoires of such notable
virtuosos as Eugène Ysaÿe, Jan Kubelík,
Mathieu Crickboom, and George
Enescu. Saint-Saëns applauded them
all, but he was less happy about
Emile Sauret, who effected substantial
modifications to the solo part and then
had the American firm of G. Schirmer
publish his version as an “authorized
edition.” Saint-Saëns went ballistic, but
there was no stuffing the genie back
in the bottle and that unquestionably
unauthorized edition remains in print to
this day.

Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 38, Spring (1841) ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-56)

On December 11, 1839, after
attending a reading of Franz Schubert’s
C-major Symphony (Great), Robert
Schumann penned an account to Clara
Wieck, with whom he was passionately
in love: “I was totally happy and wished
only that you should be my wife and
that I also could write symphonies.”
Both these wishes would soon come
to fruition. In September 1840, Miss
Wieck became Mrs. Schumann, and in
January 1841, he embarked on his First
Symphony, sketching the entire piece
in only four days.

It was inspired by a poem by Adolf
Böttger, to whom he sent a signed
portrait inscribed with the opening
notes and the words “Beginning of
a symphony, occasioned by a poem
by Adolf Böttger.” The symphony’s
opening motto is a wordless setting
of the poem’s lines, “O wende, wende
deinen Lauf,— Im Talle blüht der
Frühling auf!” (Oh turn, oh turn and
change your course,—Now in the
valley blooms the spring!). Images
of spring carried through a series of
movement headings: “Beginning of
Spring,” “Evening,” “Jolly Playmates,”
“Spring Replete.” When the score was
published Schumann eliminated all of
these programmatic references, but he
continued to emphasize its depictive
elements as a guide to interpretation. In
a letter to the Berlin conductor Wilhelm
Tauber, he begged: “Could you breathe
a little of the longing for spring into
your orchestra as they play?”

If the opening movement is
ebullient, a more delicate side of
spring informs the dreamy, forested
second movement, where horns inject
a mysterious premonition near the end.
The contour of their music re-emerges
transformed in the muscular Scherzo;
the first of its Trio sections suggests a
rustic dance, the second an outburst
of rowdiness. The finale begins with
its own fanfare before diving into a
light-stepping, balletic theme. Near
the movement’s end, bucolic sounds
emanate from the oboe, horn, and
birdlike flute before a final race to the
finish.

Artist Biographies

Anne-Marie McDermott

Photo Credit: Sophie Zhai

Joshua Bell

Photo Credit: Phillip Knott

Harvey de Souza

One of the most dazzling American pianists of her generation, Anne-Marie McDermott has played concertos, recitals, and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is one of the most versatile, respected, and best-reviewed pianists of our time. McDermott continues her tenure as music and artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, in Colorado, through 2026, which hosts world-renowned artists and orchestras. She is also the artistic director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival, in Florida; the artistic director of the McKnight Center’s Chamber Music Festival, at Oklahoma State University; and a former curator of the Mainly Mozart Spotlight Series, in San Diego.

Highlights of McDermott’s 2025-26 season include a Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center tour of the United States, including Alice Tully Hall; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and No. 4, with music director Otto Tausk; a performance with violinist Richard Lin at Rose Studio, with music by Mozart, Brahms, Fauré, and Paul Schoenfield; a tour of Spain and Portugal; Sociedad Filarmónica de Lima, Peru; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and North Carolina Symphony, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor,” with music director Carlos Miguel Prieto.

Last season McDermott performed Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA); performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra (KY); Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Des Moines Symphony and Palm Beach Symphony; with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, and on tour in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Ashland (OR), and Vienna (VA). She also appeared in a special chamber music program at the New World Symphony, in Miami Beach, that included Messiaen’s wartime masterwork Quartet for the End of Time; performed as a member of the SPA Trio — with soprano Susanna Phillips and violist Paul Neubauer — at the Rockefeller University, and at Arizona Friends of Chamber Music; and in a chamber music program at the McKnight Center for the Performing Arts, in Stillwater (OK).

In previous seasons McDermott has performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, both resulting in immediate re-engagements. She also performed Mozart with the New York Philharmonic at the McKnight Center in Stillwater. Other international highlights include recitals in France at the famed Piano aux Jacobins, in Toulouse; performances with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra at the Cartagena International Music Festival; and an all-Haydn recital tour of China.

The breadth of McDermott’s repertoire ranges from Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Scriabin, also including works by today’s most influential composers. McDermott is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Mexico City’s illustrious Sinfónica de Minería, under conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto. She has also recorded the complete piano sonatas of Prokofiev, solo works by Chopin, Bach’s English Suites and Partitas (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine), and Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (also Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine). She released an album of Mozart concertos with the Calder Quartet that was praised as “exceptional on every count” by Gramophone Magazine. She has recorded five Haydn piano sonatas and two Haydn concertos with the Odense Philharmonic, in Denmark, including two cadenzas written by the late American composer Charles Wuorinen.

In recent years, McDermott participated in the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee all-Gershwin program and embarked on a cycle of Beethoven concertos at Santa Fe Pro Musica. She is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Mexico City’s illustrious Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, under the direction of Carlos Miguel Prieto. She also premiered and recorded a new concerto by the Danish composer Poul Ruders with the Vancouver Symphony, alongside Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations, and returned to play Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail. Other recent highlights include performing the Mozart Concerto, K. 595 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Sir Donald Runnicles; the Bach D minor concerto with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra; and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the New York City-based Le Train Bleu.

McDermott continues to perform with many leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonies of Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Colorado, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Atlanta, San Diego, New Jersey, Columbus, and Baltimore. She has also toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.

McDermott is a winner of the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women, the Young Concert Artists auditions, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She also received a 2024 Honorary Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied. She lives in New York City with her husband, Michael.

With a career spanning almost four decades, GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era. Bell has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and continues to maintain engagements as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor and as the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Bell’s highlights for the 2024-25 season include the release of two new albums: Thomas De Hartmann Rediscovered, which features the World Premiere recording of Ukrainian composer Thomas De Hartmann’s Violin Concerto, with conductor Dalia Stasevska and the INSO-Lviv Orchestra, released August 16, 2024 on Pentatone, as well as an album of Mendelssohn piano trios, which Bell recorded with longtime friends and collaborators Jeremy Denk and Steven Isserlis, out August 30, 2024 on Sony Masterworks. Bell will rejoin Denk and Isserlis in November 2024 for a series of Fauré chamber concerts at Wigmore Hall. An avid recitalist, Bell tours internationally to South America, Australia and mainland China, and performs his beloved “Voice and the Violin” program with soprano Larisa Martínez throughout North America. As guest soloist, Bell appears with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as conducts and plays with the DSO Berlin.

In 2011, Bell was named Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who formed the orchestra in 1959. Bell has since led the orchestra on several tours and albums, most recently Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, which was nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY® Award. In April 2024, the ASMF announced the extension of Bell’s Music Director contract through the 2027-28 season.

Bell has commissioned and premiered new works by John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Behzad Ranjbaran and Nicholas Maw – his recording of Maw’s Violin Concerto received a GRAMMY® award. In 2023-24, Bell introduced his newly commissioned concerto project, The Elements, a suite featuring movements by five renowned living composers: Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery, and Kevin Puts.

Bell has collaborated with peers including Renée Fleming, Daniil Trifonov, Emanuel Ax, Lang Lang, Chick Corea, Regina Spektor, Chris Botti, Anoushka Shankar, Dave Matthews, Josh Groban, and Sting, among others.

As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums, garnering GRAMMY®, Mercury®, Gramophone and OPUS KLASSIK awards. In 1998, Bell worked with composer John Corigliano on the film soundtrack for The Red Violin, which elevated Bell to a household name and garnered Corigliano an Academy Award. Since then, Bell has appeared on several other film soundtracks, including Ladies in Lavender (2004) and Defiance (2008). Bell has also appeared three times as a guest star on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and made numerous appearances on the Amazon series

A strong advocate for accessible music education, Bell has received the 2022 Paez Medal of Art, bestowed by the Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts, and the 2019 Glashütte Original Music Festival Award, presented in conjunction with the Dresden Music Festival. In 2021, Bell announced his new partnership with Trala, the tech-powered violin learning app. Bell maintains additional active involvement with Education Through Music and Turnaround Arts. Joshua Bell’s Virtual Violin, the result of an ongoing partnership with leading virtual instrument sampling company Embertone, is widely considered the best virtual instrument of its kind.

LAWN SCREEN: Bravo! Vail is pleased to offer the lawn screen experience at this evening's concert.

PRESTO CLUB: Presto Club Night: Youth ages 8–14 are invited to attend pre-concert activities and social lawn experience on this concert. Click here to learn more.