IT has just been announced that U.S. violinist Joshua Bell and opera singer Larisa Martinez were married in their New York home last week. The ceremony is a happy milestone for the classical music power couple, who over the years, have won multiple awards between them.

The couple met in 2011, backstage at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York after a performance by their mutual friend, trumpeter Chris Botti, according to the New York Times. Six months later they were officially a couple. “On their seven-year anniversary, Bell proposed to Martinez in Chris Botti’s dressing room at the Blue Note,” said the New York Times.

Born and raised in Indiana, Bell, 52, appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra when he was 14. He studied at Indiana University and was the incognito subway violinist featured in a 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post story, which later inspired a children’s book. In 1993, the gifted virtuoso won a Grammy Award for his beautiful recording of Nicholas Maw’s violin concerto, and in 2000, he was honored as an Indiana Living Legend for his contribution to the state.

Martinez, 32, is an opera singer and frequent recital partner of Andrea Bocelli. She has performed at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center and Madison Square Garden.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she is the daughter of an emergency room doctor and an occupational nurse. Martinez studied at the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico while earning a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico. She holds a master’s degree from Mannes College the New School for Music.

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

(SD-Agencies)