Classical Superstar Joshua Bell Joins Palm Beach Symphony, April 16

Grammy Award-winner Joshua Bell, one of the most celebrated violinists of his era, joins Maestro Gerard Schwarz and Palm Beach Symphony in an evening of Mendelssohn and Beethoven at the Kravis Center on Sunday, April 16 at 8 p.m.

Performing on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius, Bell will treat concertgoers to one of the masterworks of violin virtuosity, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, including a cadenza of his own composition. With a career spanning four decades, Bell has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world and continues to maintain engagements as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor and Music Director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

The concert opens with the Symphony performing Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture ("Fingals' Cave") and its stirring musical summoning of nature's drama and beauty found along the Scottish coast. The evening culminates with the Symphony performing Beethoven's landmark Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major ("Eroica") that launched his heroic period and broke new ground by creating a symphony composed like none ever before.

A superstar who has crossed over to achieve mainstream celebrity, Bell has brought orchestral music to new audiences through a variety of media. He has been featured on six Live From Lincoln Center specials, as well as a PBS Great Performances episode, Joshua Bell: West Side Story in Central Park. In 2020, PBS presented Joshua Bell: At Home With Music, a nationwide broadcast produced entirely during the pandemic lockdown featuring core classical repertoire as well as new arrangements of beloved works. As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums garnering GRAMMY, Mercury, Gramophone and OPUS KLASSIK awards. He has also collaborated with artists across a multitude of genres including Renée Fleming, Chick Corea, Regina Spektor, Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, Anoushka Shankar, Frankie Moreno, Josh Groban and Sting, among others.

Highlights of Bell's 2022-23 season include leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on tour in South America performing in Sao Paulo, Bogotá and Montevideo as well in Europe, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark and the United Kingdom. He also appears in guest performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Sofia Philharmonic, Franz Schubert Filharmonia as well as a European tour with pianist Peter Dugan. In addition to this performance with Palm Beach Symphony, he performs in the U.S. this season alongside the New York Philharmonic, as well as the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras.

Internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming and extensive catalog of recordings, Maestro Schwarz is Music Director of Palm Beach Symphony, the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival and Mozart Orchestra of New York as well as Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. Also in South Florida, he serves as the Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra and the Distinguished Professor of Music, Conducting and Orchestral Studies at University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Schwarz's extensive catalogue of more than 350 recordings on 11 labels has garnered 14 GRAMMY Award nominations and includes the 30-CD box set "The Gerard Schwarz Collection." In his five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Maestro Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades including nine Emmy Awards, eight ASCAP Awards and numerous "Stereo Review" and Ovation Awards. He holds the Ditson Conductor's Award from Columbia University, was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America and has received numerous honorary doctorates. His memoir, "Behind the Baton," was released by Amadeus Press in March 2017.

The 2022-23 Masterworks season culminates Monday, May 15 with a concert featuring acclaimed pianist Maria João Pires, piano.

Tickets are $25-$95 and may be purchased at Click Here, by calling (561) 281-0145, and at the Palm Beach Symphony Box Office weekdays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at 400 Hibiscus Street, Suite 100, West Palm Beach. The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts is located at 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach.