SPECIAL GUESTS

JOSHUA BELL, violin

July 8 and 9

With a career spanning almost four decades, GRAMMY® Awardwinning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era. Having performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, Bell continues to maintain engagements as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor and Music BENJAMIN EALOVEGA Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Bell’s highlights in the 2021-22 season include leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the 2021 BBC Proms and the U.S. on tour; returning with the Philadelphia Orchestra for a play/ conduct program, and appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In summer 2020, PBS presented Joshua Bell: At Home With Music, a nationwide broadcast directed by Tony and Emmy award winner, Dori Berinstein, produced entirely in lockdown. The program included core classical repertoire as well as new arrangements of beloved works, including a West Side Story medley. The special featured guest artists Larisa Martínez, Jeremy Denk, Peter Dugan, and Kamal Khan. In August 2020, Sony Classical released the companion album to the special, “Joshua Bell: At Home With Music. In 2011, Bell was named Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who formed the orchestra in 1959.

As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums garnering GRAMMY®, Mercury®, Gramophone and OPUS KLASSIK awards. Bell’s Fall 2019 Amazon Music Originals new Chopin Nocturne arrangement was the first classical release of its kind on the platform. Bell’s 2016 release, For the Love of Brahms, includes 19th-century repertoire with the Academy, Steven Isserlis, and Jeremy Denk. Bell’s 2013 album with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, featuring Bell directing Beethoven’s Fourth and Seventh symphonies, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell began the violin at age four, and at age twelve, began studies with his mentor, Josef Gingold. At age 14, Bell debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 17 with the St. Louis Symphony. At age 18, Bell signed with his first label, London Decca, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the years following, Bell has been named 2010 “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, a 2007 “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, nominated for six GRAMMY® awards, and received the 2007 Avery Fisher Prize. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.

LARISA MARTÍNEZ, soprano

July 8

nternationally acclaimed soprano Larisa Martínez is widely regarded as one of the most exciting talents of her generation. She recently made her Chicago Symphony debut at the 2021 Ravinia Festival, and has been recently seen as Violetta in La Traviata conducted by Eugene Kohn, as Sophie alongside tenor Piotr Beczala in Werther, as Maria in West Side Story, conducted by Lawrence Foster alongside tenor Michael Fabiano, and as Musetta in La Bohème alongside tenor Roberto Algana (Culturarte). In 2019, Ms. Martínez made her Kennedy Center debut in recital and Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage debut, singing Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Athens Philharmonic under the baton of Yiannis Hadjiloizou. In 2020, she appeared with the Grand Rapids Symphony, performing Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Floresta do Amazonas. In 2016, she created the role of Isaura in the world premiere of Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini in Italy, conducted by Fabio Luisi and directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi. That same year, Ms. Martínez was invited as part of President Barack Obama’s artistic delegation to Cuba, in an effort to expand cultural collaboration between the two countries, culminating in the Emmy®nominated PBS special, Live from Lincoln Center: Seasons of Cuba where she was showcased.

For the last three years, Ms. Martínez has toured with tenor Andrea Bocelli, debuting at Madison Square Garden, Hollywood Bowl and throughout North America, South America, and Europe. She also has a long history of collaborations with violinist Joshua Bell, including two PBS specials and an upcoming “Voice and the Violin” concert tour.

She won the 2016 Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Audition in Puerto Rico, the Angel Ramos Foundation Award, and the Audience Prize. She was also invited by the Metropolitan Opera Guild 2018 Annual Gala as a guest artist to honor Anna Netrebko. In 2018, EastWest Sounds Studios chose and sampled her voice for its new virtual instrument software, “Voices of Opera.”

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ms. Martínez holds degrees in Vocal Performance from the Music Conservatory in San Juan, a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from Mannes the New School of Music. She is a proud artistic resident of Turnaround Arts, led by the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. I SHERVIN LAINEZ

SPECIAL GUESTS

CONNOR BOGART O’BRIEN, vocalist

July 21

Aclassical violinist since the age of five, Connor Bogart (Connor Bogart O’Brien) studied opera at the Eastman School of Music in New York, and has since toured the globe as a professional performer. Notable theater performances have included leading roles in Miss Saigon (Chris), Sweeney Todd (Anthony), The Last Five Years (Jamie), Company (Bobby), Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Joseph), Forever Plaid (Sparky), as well as Altar Boyz (Abraham).

A native of Northeast Ohio, Connor decided to leave the violin behind to study vocal performance/opera at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in New York (U. S. News and World Report ranked #1 Music Conservatory in America 2010-2012) under the direction of Dr. Robert McIver. During his time at Eastman, he also auditioned for, and was subsequently accepted into the nationally ranked male acappella group, The University of Rochester Yellowjackets, (as seen on NBC’s “The Sing Off”) as a featured soloist.

After recording several award winning albums with the group, a love of singing without instruments took hold and in subsequent years led to executive producing future Yellowjacket albums and being a national finalist for the world famous vocal band Rockapella in their search for a new second tenor.

Connor has been a featured soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, The Cleveland Pops, The Symphony of Southeast Texas, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Rochester Philharmonic, The Toledo Symphony, The Mansfield Symphony, The New Haven Symphony, The Akron Symphony, The Rappahannock Pops, Music In The Mountains (The Dallas Symphony), The Fireland Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. He has served as executive music supervisor and composer to The Discovery Channel for their series, The Kustomizer, and as a songwriter, had had several of his original songs featured on national television. “Inside Out”, the lead single from his self-titled first album, vaulted to the number one radio position in France, and held the position for several weeks. Two full-length albums followed, “Soliloquy” which featured a cover story in Scene Magazine, as well as the hit single “Ready To Fall”, a national semi-finalist entry in Sony Music and Clear Channel’s “Radiostar” competition hosted by Ryan Seacrest and KISS FM’s Elvis Duran. His third album “Prizefighter” is his latest rock release.

He has since toured the U.S, and along with his band, has performed as the opening act on over 20 national tours, including Ashlee Simpson, Huey Lewis and The News, Edwin McCain, Richard Marx, Rick Springfield, Hall & Oates, and Mariah Carey.

JAMIE BERNSTEIN, speaker

July 26 and 27

Jamie Bernstein is an author, narrator, and filmmaker who has transformed a lifetime of loving music into a career of sharing her knowledge and excitement with others. Jamie’s memoir, Famous Father Girl, published by HarperCollins, details her youth growing up in an atmosphere bursting with music, theatre and literature. Her father, composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, and her mother, pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre—who filled the house with a veritable who’s-who of friends in arts and letters— created an ebullient atmosphere that turned Jamie into a lifelong cultural enthusiast.

Inheriting her father’s passion for sharing and teaching, Jamie has devised several ways of communicating her own excitement about classical music. In addition to “The Bernstein Beat,” a family concert about her father modeled after his own groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts, Jamie has also written and narrated concerts for audiences of all ages about Mozart, Aaron Copland, and Stravinsky, among others.

As a concert narrator, Jamie has appeared everywhere from Beijing to London to Vancouver. In addition to her own scripted narrations, Jamie also performs standard concert narrations, such as Walton’s “Facade,” Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” and her father’s Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish.” A frequent speaker on musical topics, Jamie has presented talks around the world, from conferences in Japan to seminars at Harvard University. In Spanish-speaking locations such as Madrid and Caracas, Jamie narrates en español— thanks to her Chilean-born mother Felicia, who raised her three children to be bilingual. Jamie is the co-director of a film documentary, Crescendo: the Power of Music—which focuses on children in struggling urban communities who participate in youth orchestra programs for social transformation inspired by Venezuela’s groundbreaking El Sistema movement. The film has won numerous prizes on the festival circuit, and is currently viewable on Netflix. More about Crescendo: the Power of Music can be found at http://www.crescendofilmdoc.com

In addition to writing her own scripts and narrations, Jamie writes articles and poetry, which have appeared in such publications as Symphony, DoubleTake, Town & Country, Gourmet, Opera News, and Musical America. She also edits “Prelude, Fugue & Riffs,” a newsletter about issues and events pertaining to her father’s legacy.

Jamie is a devoted mom to her two grown children, Frankie and Evan. She is an avid scrabble and tennis player, and makes an annual pilgrimage to the Utah desert to recharge her spiritual battery.