Highlights from the 2023-24 season include an international tour of his newly commissioned project, The Elements, a six-movement violin concerto from five different composers, and the release of his album Butterfly Lovers with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. Bell’s highlights for the 2024-25 season include the release of two new albums: Thomas De Hartmann Rediscovered, featuring the World Premiere recording of Ukrainian composer Thomas De Hartmann’s Violin Concerto, and an album of Mendelssohn piano trios, which Bell recorded with longtime friends and collaborators Jeremy Denk and Steven Isserlis.

At age 18, Bell received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In the years following, Bell has been nominated for six GRAMMY® awards, named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, deemed a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, and received the Avery Fisher Prize. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.

As concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, and plays with the world’s foremost chamber orchestras. His interest in authentic performance has included collaborations with period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Recordings include the Chopin Cello Sonata with Dénes Várjon using one of Chopin’s own pianos, a performance with Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn using Beethoven’s own cello, and performances and recordings with Robert Levin of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano using original or replica fortepianos. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, Isserlis recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach and sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti.  His critically-acclaimed recording of Bach’s complete Solo Cello Suites was Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year. He has also premiered many new works by contemporary composers including John Tavener, Stephen Hough and Olli Mustonen.

Mr. Isserlis’s many honors include a CBE and he is one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.

Duval has performed widely in Europe, including recitals at major venues and collaborations with orchestras such as the Dresdner Philharmonie, and Sinfonia Varsovia at the National Forum in Tokyo; past chamber music collaborators include Gidon Kremer and Christian Tetzlaff. This season, she performs at the Festival de Musica de Canarias with Joshua Bell, Blythe-Engstroem, and Steven Isserlis; at Wigmore Hall with Isserlis and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet; she returns to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Mendelssohn’s Concerto, and in Sheffield for a celebration of Gabriel Fauré’s music. Fauré is the central composer of her 2024 recital recording with Angus Webster released by Capriccio.

Irène plays a beautiful Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin, on loan to her through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

She was a member of the Quatuor Terpsycordes (Switzerland). Blythe has performed at numerous festivals in Europe and the Far East and is a regular soloist at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. She is a founding member of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra which, under Gábor Takács-Nagy, tours regularly with artists including Martha Argerich, Joshua Bell and Maxim Vengerov. She has been the Chamber Orchestra’s concertmaster and currently leads the viola section. Blythe plays on a beautiful Maggini viola, on generous loan from a private benefactor.