Voice and the Violin
Featuring Joshua Bell and Larisa Martínez
Concert followed by Gala event!
Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 3:00pm
Voice and the Violin
Featuring Joshua Bell and Larisa Martínez
Concert followed by Gala event!
Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 3:00pm
Voice and the Violin
Concert followed by Gala event!
Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 3:00pm
Location
The Palace Theatre
61 Atlantic Street, Stamford, CT 06901
Duration
75 minutes with no intermission.
After the concert, stay for our Gala fundraiser!
Share With
Join us for the special concert event only, or stay for our annual Gala dinner and auction after the concert!
Click here to learn more about the Gala
To purchase tickets for the Joshua Bell concert plus the post-concert Gala dinner and fundraiser, please contact Lisa Rich at LRich@OrchestraLumos.org or (203) 325-1407 x3
About this performance
Husband-and-wife duo Joshua Bell and Larisa Martínez present Voice and the Violin, exploring repertoire from classical art song and opera to musical theater and selections by Puerto Rican and Spanish composers.
The married couple said, “Our concept for this program began during the pandemic, while we were quarantined and finding new ways to collaborate and enjoy music together. Although finding repertoire written specifically for violin and voice can be a challenge, we discovered and fell in love with these gems.”
”“Bell and Martínez’s musical sensibilities were evenly matched, the soprano’s delicate voice fitting well with the violinist’s effortless playing. … Though the program retained the feel of an intimate, 19th-century salon, Bell and Martínez didn’t pass up the chance for some big, impressive moments.”
Cleveland Classical
Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era, having performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world. Puerto Rican opera singer Larisa Martínez has graced many of the world’s top opera and concert stages.
Joshua Bell, violin
Larisa Martinez, soprano
Peter Dugan, piano
Featured Artists
Joshua Bell, violin
Photo credit Sebastian Madej
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.
Following his world premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s Violin Concerto, Bell gives the work’s UK, North American, and Canadian premieres at London’s BBC Proms, with the New York Philharmonic, and during his season-long tenure as a Toronto Symphony Spotlight Artist, respectively. He also leads extensive U.S. 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; tours Asia with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra; 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 former president 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.
Larisa Martinez, soprano
Photo credit Felipe Torres
Puerto Rican opera singer Larisa Martínez is praised and sought after for her “smoky soprano” (Opera News), gracing top stages and collaborating with household names of today.
Larisa has made orchestra appearances with Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New
Jersey Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony. In 2019, she made both her Kennedy Center
recital debut and Carnegie Hall debut, singing Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Athens
Philharmonic. Internationally, Larisa recently performed as soloist with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and made her debuts at Athens’ Herodeon Theater and Korea’s KSPO Dome.
In April, she premiered a new work written for her and violinist Joshua Bell by Academy
Award-winning composer John Corigliano. Larisa is a longtime touring partner of acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli, performing for packed houses including Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden. Her “Voice and the Violin” program, created with Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell, has visited the Ravinia Festival, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Verbier Festival, Pacific Symphony, and Colorado Symphony. Larisa was invited as part of President Barack Obama’s artistic delegation to Cuba in 2016. The visit culminated in the Emmy®-nominated PBS special, Live from Lincoln Center: Seasons of Cuba.
Larisa’s operatic roles include Violetta in La Traviata (Wichita Grand Opera), Sophie in Werther alongside tenor Piotr Beczala (Culturarte), and Maria in West Side Story with tenor Michael Fabiano (Festival Napa Valley). She originated the role of Isaura in the World Premiere of Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini in Italy, conducted by Maestro Fabio Luisi. That same year, Larisa won the 2016 Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Audition in Puerto Rico.
An advocate for accessible music education, Larisa is an artistic resident of Turnaround Arts, led by the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Larisa is additionally passionate about representing her Boricua cultural heritage through projects and performances.
Peter Dugan, piano
Pianist Peter Dugan’s debut performances with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony were described by the Los Angeles Times as “stunning” and by the SF Chronicle as “fearlessly athletic.” He is heard nationwide as the host of NPR’s beloved program From the Top. He has appeared as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across North America and abroad. This year he makes his debuts at Wigmore Hall and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and can be heard as the piano soloist on a new release of Ives’ Fourth Symphony from Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, a recording which the New York Times named one of the top classical albums of 2019 . Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, Mr. Dugan is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms.
A sought-after multi-genre artist, Mr. Dugan has performed in duos and trios with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Renee Fleming to Jesse Colin Young and Glenn Close. The Wall Street Journal described Mr. Dugan’s collaboration with violinist Charles Yang as a “classical-meets-rockstar duo.” Mr. Dugan has been presented in chamber music recitals by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Music at Menlo, Moab Music Festival, and recently in recital with Joshua Bell at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival. He was the 2019 featured recitalist for the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and has soloed with the San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, New World Symphony, and Mid-Texas Symphony.
His debut album with baritone John Brancy – A Silent Night: A WWI Memorial in Song – pays homage to composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War. Brancy and Dugan toured this program across North America in commemoration of the centennial of WWI, including performances at The Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Stanford University, the United States Naval Academy, and the Smithsonian Institute. Together Brancy and Dugan won first prize at the 2018 Montreal International Music Competition and second prize at the 2017 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition.
Mr. Dugan advocates the importance of music in the community and at all levels of society. As a founding creator of Operation Superpower, a superhero opera for children, he has travelled to dozens of schools in the greater New York area, performing for students and encouraging them to use their talents – their superpowers – for good.
Mr. Dugan holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Matti Raekallio. He resides in New York City with his wife, mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, and serves on the piano faculty at the Juilliard School Evening Division. Mr. Dugan is a Yamaha Artist.
