VERO BEACH — A true American musical legend, Joshua Bell, the world-renowned virtuoso violinist, is coming back to Vero Beach March 23.
Mr. Bell, who is equally at home with Ravel, Beethoven and Brahms as he is with Chris Botti, Sting, Wynton Marsalis and Gloria Estefan, and who has been named an Indiana Living Legend – he’s a Bloomington boy – will be conducting and performing with London’s world-renowned Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Orchestra on Friday, March 23, in the Community Church of Vero Beach.
Sponsored by the Indian River Symphonic Association, the concert will feature Beethoven’s glorious Sixth Symphony, the Pastorale. Beethoven was a lover of nature who enjoyed, more than anything, the solitude of walks in the woods and meadows, and being in the beloved Rhine country of his youth.
This symphony is an exquisite tone poem, a painting in music, of those idyllic country scenes and memories. In addition, there will be not one, but two violin masterworks performed by Joshua Bell, a concerto by one of the foremost violinist/composers of the Romantic Era, Henryk Wieniawski, and an exciting world premiere written specifically for Joshua Bell by the very gifted Edgar Meyer.
Meyer, a celebrated American virtuoso bassist and composer, was playing pieces with the 14-year-old Joshua back home in Indiana, and has played and written music encompassing everything from the classics, jazz, pop and, having grown up and recorded in Nashville, bluegrass.
The evening promises to be one of the more enjoyable musical events to take place in Vero Beach this season, and it all happens at the Community Church of Vero Beach, famous for its surround-sound acoustics, at 1901 23rd Street, Friday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.