Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Return to QPAC

Led by virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell, Academy of St Martin in the Fields will return to Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) to perform two concert programs on 26 and 27 April 2017.

The QPAC concerts are part of the acclaimed ensemble's first national Australian tour in almost three decades. Bell and the Academy performed two sold out concerts at QPAC in an exclusive Australian appearance in 2010.

Established in 1958 by the late Sir Neville Marriner, the orchestra takes its name from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, where the Academy gave its first performance.

In the decades since, the Academy has become one of the world's most revered and recorded chamber orchestras - familiar to music-lovers everywhere for their classic recordings of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the soundtrack of Miloš Forman's Amadeus.

Joshua Bell, one of the most celebrated violinists of his era, became the Academy's Music Director in 2011, leading the orchestra from the first violin and performing as a soloist. A native of Bloomington Indiana, Bell made his orchestral debut aged 14 with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was an incognito performance in a Washington DC subway station in 2007, however, that transformed his reputation from musician's musician to a household name.

Bell will lead the Academy players in two dynamic and spellbinding concerts with two separate programs, catering to both aficionados and those newly awakened to the beauty of classical music.

In the concert on 26 April, The Mighty Bruch, QPAC audiences will experience a different program to the concerts being performed in Melbourne and Sydney. Audiences will see Bell perform Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, a much-loved masterwork demonstrating his stunning vivacity and power. By contrast, the slow movement of Schumann's violin concerto is a lyrical showcase for Bell and the Academy's strings.

Great Classics: Mozart and Beethoven on 27 April opens with Mozart's darkly stormy and operatic Symphony No.25 heard in the opening moments of Amadeus, while the violinist is the star of Mozart's dramatic Fourth Violin Concerto - a bravura display of swagger and elegance for soloist Joshua Bell. The highlight of this program isBeethoven's Third Symphony. A revolution in sound, it is an explosion of heroic determination without equal.

Don't miss the opportunity to experience the world renowned Joshua Bell and Academy of St Martin in the Fields in QPAC's Concert Hall on 26 and 27 April 2017. To book go to www.qpac.com.au or phone 136-246.

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