Yerevan to host Academy of St Martin in the Fields

The Aram Khachatryan Concert Hall of Yerevan’s Philharmonic Orchestra will host on November 15 the opening of The Academy of St Martin in the Fields’ festival to welcome Joshua Bell, a renowned contemporary virtuoso violinist.

The event is organized under the high patronage of President Serzh Sargsyan.

Joshua Bell was named the English Chamber Orchestra’s music director in 2011 after the death of Neville Marriner, its founder.

An exceptional artist of Sony Classic, the musician has recorded over 40 discs since the age 18. Bell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985, at age 17, with the St. Louis Symphony. He has since performed with many of the world's major orchestras and conductors. As well as the standard concerto repertoire, Bell has performed new works. Nicholas Maw's violin concerto is dedicated to Bell, who premiered it in 1993 and won a Grammy Award for his recording of the piece. He performed the solo part on John Corigliano's Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film The Red Violin and was also featured in Ladies in Lavender. Bell made an appearance in the movie Music of the Heart, a story about the power of music, with other notable violinists.

With over 500 released music records, The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields is to date one of the world’s most recorded chamber orchestras. For this concert season, it is planning to record the second album of Bethoven’s symphonies (after receiving critics’ high assessments for Symphonies No. 4 and 6 which won the first prize on the list of Billboard’s classical albums).