Soirée I
Joshua Bell, violin & Larisa Martínez, sopranoImportant Ticketing Information
- Soirées may be reserved now by donors $10,000+ via phone, donor mailing form, or in-person until Wednesday April 15, 2026.
- Due to limited capacity, request does not guarantee placement at time of reservation.
- Donors will be seated according to donor benefit level and date reservation is received.
Program Highlights
Members of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Joshua Bell, violin
Harvey de Souza, violin
Martin Burgess, violin
Fiona Bonds, viola
Ian Rathbone, viola
Richard Harwood, cello
Larisa Martínez, soprano
PURCELL, arr. Britten Chaconne in G minor
MOZART Allegro from String Quintet No. 4
MENDELSSOHN “Ah, ritorna, età dell’oro” (Cavatina and Cabaletta) from Infelice STRAUSS arr. James Stephenson Voices of Spring Waltz
All artists, programs, and pricing subject to change.
Program Notes
Evoking the spirit of the 18th-century salon and the informality of the
modern-day house concert, husband and wife duo Joshua Bell and
Larisa Martínez are joined by members of the Academy strings for
an intriguing mélange of musical delights. Benjamin Britten was a
great admirer of Purcell’s music, arranging many of his works, among them
this elegant Chaconne. The ever-astonishing Mozart clearly indulged his
affection for the viola in his String Quintet, with its emphasis on rich inner
voices. A vocal scene follows: Infelice was composed for the great 19th-century
soprano Maria Malibran and her lover, virtuoso violinist Charles de Bériot, with
text Mendelssohn described as “the most beautiful nonsense” by the most
celebrated librettist of 18th century Europe
Artist Biographies
Joshua Bell
Harvey de Souza
Martin Burgess
Fiona Bonds
Richard Harwood
Larisa Martínez
Joshua Bell
Photo Credit: Phillip Knott
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.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell began playing the violin at age 4, and at age 12, began studies with his mentor, Josef Gingold. At age 14, Bell debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 17 with the St. Louis Symphony. At age 18, Bell signed with his first label, London Decca, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the following decades, Bell has been nominated for six GRAMMY® awards, named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, and has received the Avery Fisher Prize. He also received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and in 2000 was named an “Indiana Living Legend.” Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He participated in President Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, resulting in an Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special.
Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.
Find out more about Joshua Bell at www.joshuabell.com
The position of the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is generously supported by the Berry Charitable Foundation.
Harvey de Souza
Harvey de Souza has been a member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields since 1993 and has led the orchestra on tours with Sir Neville Marriner and soloists including Joshua Bell and Julia Fischer. As a member of the Chamber Ensemble he has performed extensively throughout South America, Europe and the USA. Harvey has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and a member of the Vellinger String Quartet, who were winners of the 1994 London International String Quartet Competition. He has been Principal Guest Director of the Lancashire Sinfonietta, and was co-artistic director of the Sangat Chamber Music Festival in Mumbai from 1995-2015. He is currently assistant professor of violin in CNSMD in Lyon, France.
Martin Burgess
Martin Burgess began playing with the Academy in 1992, taking up the position of Principal Second Violin in 1998. Having studied with Emanuel Hurwitz and the Amadeus Quartet he brought with him the love of chamber music. He leads the Grammy nominated Emperor Quartet (winners of the prestigious Evian International String Quartet Competition). The Quartet has released critically acclaimed CDs of music by Britten, Walton, Martinu and James MacMillan. They have also performed on several film soundtracks, notably There Will Be Blood and Norwegian Wood (both written by Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead).
Martin enjoys a wide variety of playing away from both these ensembles, a highlight including touring the world with Peter Gabriel.
Fiona Bonds
Fiona Bonds completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music and in Berlin. As well as being Associate Principal Viola of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and a member of their Chamber Ensemble, Fiona is also Principal Viola of the City of London Sinfonia, which presents her with frequent opportunities to appear as a soloist. Passionate about chamber music, Fiona was a founder member of the Grammy nominated Emperor String Quartet, and has recently running her Marriner Project – a chamber music series in her home town of Hertford. She loves helping young musicians, coaching the viola section of the National Youth Orchestra, and returning to the Royal Academy of Music to give performance classes, sectionals and as an examiner. Fiona is in demand as a guest principal viola in many of the London symphony and chamber orchestras and enjoys working in the studio, recording numerous soundtracks for film and television.
Richard Harwood
Since his concerto debut at the age of ten, the English ‘cellist Richard Harwood has performed in major venues throughout the world including the Royal Albert, Wigmore, Carnegie and Suntory Halls, NCPA Beijing, Musikverein, Concertgebouw and Alte Oper. As concerto soloist, Richard has worked with conductors such as Mark Wigglesworth, Vasily Petrenko, Case Scaglione, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Okko Kamu, and Yehudi Menuhin, and with numerous orchestras including The Philharmonia, RTÉ NSO, Auckland Philharmonia and Ural Philharmonic. As chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Jerusalem and Endellion Quartets, Joshua Bell, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Olivier Charlier, Benjamin Schmid, Alena Baeva, Murray Perahia, Martin Roscoe, Peter Donohoe and Julius Drake, among others. Richard’s discography includes a debut disc (EMI Classics) with pianist Christoph Berner, Composing Without The Picture (Resonus); a solo album of concert works written by film composers, Christopher Gunning’s Cello Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, both on Signum and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is regularly featured as a soloist on movie soundtracks, one of the most prominent being Patrick Doyle’s score to Kenneth Branagh’s Murder On The Orient Express. Richard was appointed principal cellist of the Academy of St Martin of the Fields in October 2024. He was previously principal of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2018-2024) and a principal of the John Wilson Orchestra, and regularly appears as a guest principal at the Royal Opera House, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC NOW and RTÉ Concert orchestras. He began his studies with Joan Dickson, before continuing with other eminent teachers such as Steven Doane, David Waterman, Heinrich Schiff and Ralph Kirshbaum. He complemented his studies by taking master classes and lessons with Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, Boris Pergamenschikow, Miklós Perényi, Bernard Greenhouse, Valentin Erben (Alban Berg Quartet), William Pleeth, Zara Nelsova and Ferenc Rados. Richard was appointed professor of cello at London’s Royal College of Music in September 2024. He plays a cello by Francesco Rugeri, dated 1692.
Larisa Martínez
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.
Larisa has made orchestra appearances with Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony. 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, Larisa 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 2025, she premiered a new work written for her and violinist Joshua Bell by Academy Award-winning composer John Corigliano.
Larisa’s operatic 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 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, Larisa 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.
Larisa is a longtime touring partner of acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli, performing for packed houses including 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.
In 2016, Larisa 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.
In addition to studying Vocal Performance at the Music Conservatory in San Juan, Larisa simultaneously received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences with high honors from the University of Puerto Rico. She went on to receive a Master's degree from Mannes the New School of Music in New York City.
Larisa is passionate about representing her Boricua cultural heritage through her art.
