Patrons packed the 823-seat Armstrong Auditorium on Thursday, October 22, for An Evening with Joshua Bell. The “greatest American violinist active today,” as The Boston Herald dubbed him, commenced the 17th Armstrong International Cultural Foundation concert series, the sixth at Armstrong Auditorium.

Collaborating with British pianist Sam Haywood, Bell performed five pieces: Chaconne for Violin and Piano in G minor, by Tomaso Antonio Vitali; Sonata No. 9 for Violin and Piano in A Major, Op. 47, by Ludwig Van Beethoven; Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, by Caesar Franck; and two additional pieces announced onstage to cap off the evening.

Throughout the performance, Bell displayed his propensity for passionate, enchanting, gripping, technically breathtaking bowing of the strings while Haywood added poised, aristocratic, evocative, infectious muses on Armstrong’s Steinway concert grand piano.

Following Bell’s performance, patrons waited in lines extending beyond the doors of the grand lobby for a chance to snap pictures and receive autographs from the Avery Fisher award winner, also known as “the best classical musician in America.”

The afternoon prior to the concert, Bell held a question-and-answer session in Armstrong Auditorium with about 100 of his fans from Imperial Academy, Herbert W. Armstrong College and the community. Listeners discovered, among other things, that Bell bought his 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin for $3.5 million.

Joshua Bell is a decorated violinist of over 30 years and serves as the music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, which has taken the Armstrong Auditorium stage twice. He has released 40 CDs, including Billboard’s 2004 Classical CD of the Year, and performed for three U.S. presidents and a Chinese president. He has appeared on The Tonight Show, Sesame Street and the Grammy Awards. He recently collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a series of high-tech instruments and musical toys that stimulate children’s interest in performance and composition. His 2007 Washington Post social experiment, in which he played incognito at a busy train station in Washington, D.C., gave him exposure beyond the realm of classical music connoisseurs.

Sam Haywood is a regular duo partner of Bell. As the Washington Post wrote earlier this year, “violinist Joshua Bell meets his match in pianist Sam Haywood.” In addition to performing in prominent concert halls worldwide, Haywood produced the Composers in Love CD and is featured in Bell’s Musical Gifts album. He also made a recording in 2010 using Chopin’s own piano.

From the plains of north Edmond, Bell travels on to England, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Austria, and the Netherlands to perform with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields for thousands more classical music fans over the next two months.

The Armstrong International Cultural Foundation concert series continued on November 5, with Armstrong College assistant music director Mark Jenkins performing My Favorite Jazz on the piano. Up next: the Mozart Orchestra of New York, with legendary conductor Gerard Schwarz, performs at Armstrong on November 19.