This concert is made possible by Andy and Teri Goodman.
This concert is made possible by the Matthew Kelly Foundation.
Inside Music Talks are supported in memory of Horacio Rodriguez.
Joshua Bell Plays Beethoven
March 30, 2027
Overview
With a career spanning four decades, multiple Grammy awards, recitals in the most prestigious concert halls of the world, and collaborations and projects with artists spanning continents and genres, Joshua Bell “doesn’t stand in anyone’s shadow” (New York Times). Bell joins the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Christian Reif to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, a work of singular scope, vision, and majesty.Concert Extras
An Inside Music Talk will be presented on stage one hour before each concert. Free to all ticketholders.
Program
Ludwig van
Beethoven
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Ludwig van
Beethoven
Violin Concerto
Sponsors
Christian Reif
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Conductor
German conductor CHRISTIAN REIF, who has quickly established a name for himself as a fast-rising talent, is Music Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival of Minnesota. His 2021–22 engagements include appearances with the Hallé Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Orchestre National de Leon, Odense Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, New World Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony. He also leads a Juilliard Opera production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Juilliard School’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater in his New York City opera debut. He recently conducted the Stavanger Symphony in a program of works by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Samuel Barber, and he made his debut in March 2021 with the Orchestre National d’île de France in a streamed performance of Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète.
Mr. Reif is the former resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and former conducting fellow with the New World Symphony and at the Tanglewood Music Center. He studied with Alan Gilbert at Juilliard and Dennis Russell Davies at the Mozarteum Salzburg. He is winner of the 2015 German Operetta Prize, awarded by the German Music Council, and two Kulturförderpreise awards given to promising artists of the region who promote cultural advancement in their communities.
Mr. Reif is the former resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and former conducting fellow with the New World Symphony and at the Tanglewood Music Center. He studied with Alan Gilbert at Juilliard and Dennis Russell Davies at the Mozarteum Salzburg. He is winner of the 2015 German Operetta Prize, awarded by the German Music Council, and two Kulturförderpreise awards given to promising artists of the region who promote cultural advancement in their communities.
Joshua Bell
Violin
With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and regularly appears as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor, and as music director of London’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In 2025, he was awarded an honorary commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1991 as a Shenson Young Artist.
This season, following his world-premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s violin concerto, Bell performs the work at the BBC Proms, New York Philharmonic, and during his season-long tenure as a Toronto Symphony Spotlight Artist. He also leads extensive US and European tours with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields; makes his first appearances as the New Jersey Symphony’s inaugural principal guest conductor; and joins Steven Isserlis and Evgeny Kissin for trio programs in New York, Paris, Vienna, and Prague.
Bell has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, recognized with the Avery Fisher Prize, and honored as an “Indiana Living Legend.” His many collaborators include Emanuel Ax, Chris Botti, Chick Corea, Renée Fleming, Josh Groban, Lang Lang, Dave Matthews, Anoushka Shankar, Regina Spektor, Sting, and Daniil Trifonov. Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. After participating in Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, he headlined the subsequent Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.
Joshua Bell appears by arrangement with Park Avenue Artists and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He records exclusively for Sony Classical—a Masterworks label. The position of the music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is generously supported by the Berry Charitable Foundation.
This season, following his world-premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s violin concerto, Bell performs the work at the BBC Proms, New York Philharmonic, and during his season-long tenure as a Toronto Symphony Spotlight Artist. He also leads extensive US and European tours with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields; makes his first appearances as the New Jersey Symphony’s inaugural principal guest conductor; and joins Steven Isserlis and Evgeny Kissin for trio programs in New York, Paris, Vienna, and Prague.
Bell has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, recognized with the Avery Fisher Prize, and honored as an “Indiana Living Legend.” His many collaborators include Emanuel Ax, Chris Botti, Chick Corea, Renée Fleming, Josh Groban, Lang Lang, Dave Matthews, Anoushka Shankar, Regina Spektor, Sting, and Daniil Trifonov. Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. After participating in Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba, he headlined the subsequent Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.
Joshua Bell appears by arrangement with Park Avenue Artists and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He records exclusively for Sony Classical—a Masterworks label. The position of the music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is generously supported by the Berry Charitable Foundation.
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