Violinist Joshua Bell marries opera singer Larisa Martínez...

... in New York home ceremony

Joshua Bell and Larisa Martínez. Picture: IG: Larisa Martinez

By Helena Asprou, ClassicFM

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Classical music power couple, Joshua Bell and Larisa Martínez, have just tied the knot – here’s everything you need to know.

It has just been announced that violinist and conductor, Joshua Bell, and opera singer, Larisa Martínez, were married in their New York home last Saturday.

officiated by New York Times columnist David Brooks, the ceremony is a happy milestone for the classical music power couple – who over the years, have won multiple awards between them.

Born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell fell in love with music at an early age after hearing his mother play the piano and he soon developed an interest in the violin.

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When he turned five, they began teaching him how to play the strings and by age 14, he appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Bell studied under Indiana University professor Josef Gingold and in 1985, made his Carnegie Hall debut aged 17 with the St. Louis Symphony. Since then, he has performed with some of the greatest classical orchestras and conductors in the world.

In 1993, the gifted virtuoso won a Grammy Award for his beautiful recording of Nicholas Maw’s violin concerto, and in 2000, he was honoured as an Indiana Living Legend for his contribution to the state.

Joshua Bell. Picture: Getty

His wife, talented soprano Larisa Martínez, is an opera singer and often praised for her warm voice and unique timbre.

In 2010, Martínez made her operatic debut as Luisa Fernanda in the zarzuela – a Spanish traditional form of musical comedy, at the Centro de Bellas Artes de Puerto Rico.

In the years that followed, she quickly rose to fame after singing as Corinna in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, Musetta in Loft Opera’s 2014 production of Puccini’s La Bohème, and Isaura in the 2016 world premiere of Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini.

Martínez, who has a masters degree in music from Mannes the New School for Music in New York City, is a winner of the Angel Ramos Foundation Award and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition PR district 2016.

She also collaborated with Joshua Bell on Medici TV’s Christmas Special, Joshua Bell and Friends.

Congratulations, Joshua and Larisa!

Classic FM Live 2019 at the Royal Albert Hall in pictures

 – with Gareth Malone and Isata Kanneh-Mason

Classic FM Live 2019. Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

It’s that exciting time of the year again – Classic FM Live 2019 took place at the Royal Albert Hall last night!

Featuring standout performances from choirmaster Gareth Malone, and pianists Isata Kanneh-Mason and Benjamin Grosvenor, there’s a whole host of artists for the audience to enjoy.

We’ll be adding to the gallery during the night, but here are all the highlights from Classic FM Live so far...

1. Rehearsals are in full swing...

   

   Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus rehearse ahead of Classic FM Live 2019. Picture: Classic FM

2. We’re joined by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

   

   Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Picture: PA

3. Margherita Taylor and John Suchet present Classic FM Live 2019!

   

   Margherita Taylor and John Suchet present Classic FM Live 2019. Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

4. Debbie Wiseman conducts the ‘Decca Anthem’, in celebration of the record label’s 90th anniversary

   

   Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

5. Stephen Barlow conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

   

   Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

6. Choirmaster Gareth Malone conducts ‘Wherever You Are’, performed beautifully by soloist Sara Brimer Davey

   

   Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

7. Tonight’s concert hall, in all its glory

   

   Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

8. Views from the back of the stalls...

   

   Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

9. Star pianist Benjamin Grosvenor performs Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’

   

   Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor performs at Classic FM Live 2019. Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

10. Surprise guest, Colin Thackery, performs ‘I vow to thee my country’

    

    Britain's Got Talent winner, Colin Thackery, is a surprise guest on Classic FM Live 2019. Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

11. Isata Kanneh-Mason performs stunning Chopin

    

    Pianist Isata-Kanneh Mason performs at Classic FM Live 2019. Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

12. Pyrotechnics round off Classic FM Live 2019 with a bang!

    

    Classic FM Live 2019 fireworks finale at the Royal Albert Hall. Picture: PA / Matt Crossick

I went into a depression

Julie Andrews on losing her voice after an operation...

Julie Andrews lost her voice after an operation. Picture: PA

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

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After having vocal surgery to remove ‘nodules’, Julie Andrews was left with permanent damage that destroyed her four-octave soprano voice.

Julie Andrews, the 84-year-old soprano and musical theatre legend, has opened up about the 1997 operation that caused her to lose her singing voice, saying: ‘I went into a depression’.

“When I woke up from an operation to remove a cyst on my vocal cord, my singing voice was gone,” she told AARP The Magazine for their October/November 2019 issue.

“I went into a depression. It felt like I’d lost my identity.”

Andrews, who won an Academy Award for her starring role in Mary Poppins (1964), first noticed her voice was hoarse during a Broadway show in 1997.

Shortly after, she had surgery to remove what she thought were ‘non-cancerous nodules’ from her throat at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. The surgery left her with permanent damage that destroyed her voice.

Julie Andrews had surgery that permanently destroyed her singing voice. Picture: Getty

In 1999, Andrews filed a malpractice suit against the doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital. The lawsuit was settled in September 2000.

Ten years later, the Sound of Music actress revealed that she did not have cancer or nodules but was suffering from ‘a certain kind of muscular striation’ on her vocal cords, after straining her voice while making Victor/Victoria – the 1982 comedy directed by her late husband, Blake Edwards.

Read more: Emily Blunt was intimidated by filling Julie Andrews’ shoes in Mary Poppins >

Andrews has since had several unsuccessful operations to repair her voice. Fortunately, around the time of operation, a new path opened up for the singer.

“But by good fortune,” she tells AARP, “That’s when my daughter Emma and I had been asked to write books for kids,” she said. “So along came a brand-new career in my mid-60s. Boy, was that a lovely surprise.”

“But do I miss singing,” she added. “Yes. I really do.

“I would have been quite a sad lady if I hadn’t had the voice to hold on to. The singing was the most important thing of all, and I don’t mean to be Pollyanna about how incredibly lost I’d have been without that.”

Julie Andrews is best known for her role as Maria in The Sound of Music (1965). Picture: 20th Century Fox

On being cast as Mary Poppins – her feature film debut – she said: “I don’t know what P.L. Travers [the author of the Mary Poppins books] thought. She said to me, ‘You’re very pretty, and you’ve got the nose for it.’ I’m sure she laughed all the way to the bank. She was very tough and canny.”

Now, Julie is starring in the TV series Bridgerton and has a new book coming out on 15 October, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.

But it seems those aren’t the only plans on the horizon for the singer.

“I’d love to be able to paint,” she tells AARP. “I’d love to be a good cook, but I’m rotten. I don’t have the patience for it. But I have to say, I’m a very good whistler. A lot of singers are.”

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter stops mid-concerto...

... as audience member starts filming

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter calls out smartphone use in concert. Picture: Getty

By Rosie Pentreath, ClassicFM London

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The smartphones that dominate our lives are becoming an increasing presence – and for many, a problem – at live music events. Does Anne-Sophie Mutter’s experience indicate that classical music is the latest frontier in our current ‘capture-the-moment’ madness?

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter was in the middle of performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto last night when the glare of a smartphone stopped her mid-movement.

Mutter was performing the slow, middle movement of the concerto, when she suddenly stopped and confronted a member of the audience in the front row – because they had their phone out and were filming her performance.

The violinist used the pause in her playing to ask the audience member to stop recording and, during an exchange of apparently a few minutes, is reported to have said: “Either I will leave, or you will put away your phone and recording device.”

Read more: Anne-Sophie Mutter and John Williams release new collaboration, ‘Across the Stars’ >

John Williams releases new album with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter

The legendary film composer is collaborating with superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter on a new album, featuring new arrangements of some of his most popular movie themes.

After the disruption, the audience member was escorted out of the concert hall. Mutter, and conductor Eun Sun Kim, began the slow movement of the concerto again.

Austin Larson was there, and has taken to social media to describe the incident.

Larson wrote in a Facebook post: “Respect the Art Form: Tonight in Cincinnati the CSO and our patrons were witness to a surreal mid-Beethoven violin concerto spectacle when soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter stopped cold halfway through the 2nd mvt to confront a millennial-looking audience member who was video recording the performance from the 2nd or 3rd row.

“When the offender had the gall to stand up(!) and talk back an argument ensued and was only defused when the CSO’s president got up from his seat to eject her from the hall before the 2nd mvt was replayed.

“Apologies Maestro Beethoven for the hideous desecration of your music and an extra apology on behalf of millennials for such a poor representation of our generation. Unbelievable!”

Several people have commented on the post, sharing their opinions of the incident – “unbelievable” writes one user – while also detailing similar incidents they’ve experienced in classical music:

“I walked out onstage for a solo performance in another country a few years back to the sight of over one hundred people holding up their phones to video my playing rather than really listening,” writes horn player Bill VerMeulen.

“I was shocked. Music is best live, period. Turn your phones off. Listen. Experience. Feel. Know.”

Read more: Is it OK to use your mobile phone during a concert? >

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Pablo Ferrández speak to Classic FM

The pair played Brahms' Double Concerto at Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre last week.

While smartphone intrusions remain relatively rare in live classical music concerts, they are an increasingly recognised problem in pop and rock gigs.

Back in June, pop sensation Billie Eilish used her Pyramid Stage spot to call out how people use their smartphones at gigs while suggesting they “live in the moment” rather than looking through their phone screens:

“All I ask is that we all try to live in the moment," the 17-year-old American singer said. “And a lot of the time I would say, ‘Put your phones away,’ but if you wanna film, that’s okay, just put it next to your face.”

She joined a long list of artists, including Guns N’ Roses, Jarvis Cocker, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar and Adele, who have previously called out how smartphones are used at gigs.

While ringtones have been known to disrupt many a concert – here are four of the most noteworthy times captured on video, – ironically, we’ve so far managed to stay relatively at arms length of the smartphone, moment-capturing craze in classical music.

Last year, though, it was revealed that one in five teenagers claimed they would actually engage more with classical music if they could use their phones to capture moments and share them on social media during concerts.

Read more: One in five teenagers want to use their phones at orchestral concerts >

Artist and orchestras have different approaches to phones in concerts, and that's fine. Classical music has a bright future in the age of 5G, live-streaming and instant messaging – we just hope for complete concertos alongside the Instagram sharing...