Joshua Bell leads the New Jersey Symphony in his first season as Principal Guest Conductor
NEWARK, NJ—Acclaimed violinist and conductor Joshua Bell will take the podium May 14–17, 2026 in four performances as the New Jersey Symphony’s principal guest conductor. The New Jersey Symphony announced in October 2024 that Bell would be joining the orchestra to serve in this inaugural role for four years through the 2028–29 season.
The program begins with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, nine minutes of dramatic incidental music written for a revival of Goethe’s play with the same name. Bell will then take the solo spotlight to play and conduct Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, a work he recorded early in his career with Charles Dutoit and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. After intermission, he’ll return to the podium to lead Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian,” a remarkable score from the then 22-year-old composer, who described this work as “the liveliest thing I have yet done, especially the last movement.”
Performances take place on Thursday, May 14, at 1:30 pm and Saturday, May 16, at 7:30 pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark; Friday, May 15, at 7:30 pm at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton; and Sunday, May 17, at 2 pm at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. The Thursday matinee will be a Relaxed Performance, designed to accommodate the differing needs of patrons of all abilities, including individuals with autism, sensory sensitivities, or cognitive and physical differences.
Joshua Bell’s 2026–27 appearances are slated for March 11–14, 2027 in an all-Beethoven program featuring the composer’s Coriolan Overture, Violin Concerto, and Symphony No. 7. View the full 2026–27 season and package options here.
Joshua Bell Leads Mendelssohn’s “Italian”
Thursday, May 14, 1:30 pm | New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark
Friday, May 15, 7:30 pm | Richardson Auditorium in Princeton
Saturday, May 16, 7:30 pm | New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark
Sunday, May 17, 2 pm | Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown
Joshua Bell conductor & violin
New Jersey Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven Egmont Overture
Camille Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3
Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4, “Italian”
Tickets are available at njsymphony.org.
The May 16 performance is presented in collaboration with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Joshua Bell
With a career spanning almost four decades, GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of our time. He has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and regularly appears as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor, and as the Music Director of London’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF).
In the 2025-26 season, Bell continues to champion the rediscovered Violin Concerto by Thomas de Hartmann, following his recent Diapason D’Or-winning world premiere recording of the work. After giving its UK premiere at London’s BBC Proms, he gives the concerto’s North American premiere with the New York Philharmonic, performs it with the Boston Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic, and gives its Canadian premiere during his season-long tenure as a Toronto Symphony Spotlight Artist. With ASMF, he leads extensive tours on both sides of the Atlantic, including returns to the Vienna Konzerthaus and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Other orchestral highlights include his first appearances as Principal Guest Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony; concerto dates with the Houston Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra; and concerts and an Asian tour with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. As well as giving recitals in the U.S. and Europe, Bell joins Steven Isserlis and Evgeny Kissin for trio programs in New York, Kansas City, Paris, Vienna, and Prague, and reunites with Jeremy Denk for duo recitals at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Ravinia Festival.
In 2011, Bell was named Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who founded the orchestra in 1959. Bell’s history with the Academy dates back to 1986, when he first recorded the Bruch and Mendelssohn concertos with Marriner and the orchestra. Bell has since led the orchestra on several albums, including the 2019 Grammy- nominated Bruch: Scottish Fantasy. In April 2024, the Academy announced the extension of his contract through the 2027-28 season. Bell is also the Founder and Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of America (COA), which aims to empower the next generation of artists through performance opportunities, mentorship, and educational outreach initiatives. In April 2025, COA made its debut at TED2025, where Bell gave a TED Talk about the power of live orchestras in today’s tech-filled world.
Bell has commissioned and premiered new works by John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Nicholas Maw, winning a GRAMMY Award for his recording of Maw’s Violin Concerto. In 2023–24, he introduced his newly commissioned concerto project, The Elements, a five-movement suite by renowned living composers Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery, and Kevin Puts. Bell gave the work’s premiere performances with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Seattle Symphony.
Bell’s 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.
New Jersey Symphony
The New Jersey Symphony is a GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning orchestra. Under the direction of the Music Director Xian Zhang, the Symphony performs more than 55 concerts at mainstage venues across the state, including Newark, Princeton, New Brunswick, Red Bank and Morristown as well as schools and public spaces statewide. Programming at the Symphony reflects an unwavering commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion while providing students across the state unparalleled opportunities to achieve musical excellence through its Youth Orchestra and other outreach programs. In 2024, the Symphony announced it would continue to deliver its statewide activities from a new, permanent office, rehearsal and concert space in Jersey City, set to open in 2027.
For more information about the New Jersey Symphony, visit njsymphony.org or email information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra's website.
Press contact
Geoffrey Anderson, New Jersey Symphony, Vice President of Marketing & External Affairs
973.735.1713 | ganderson@njsymphony.org
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The New Jersey Symphony's programs are made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors.
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