Joshua Bell

For other people named Joshua Bell, see Joshua Bell (disambiguation).

Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell, after a performance with the San Francisco Symphony in California
Background information
Born	December 9, 1967 (1967-12-09)
Origin	Bloomington, Indiana, United States
Genres	Classical music
Occupations	Violinist
Instruments	Violin
Years active	1980s–present
Website	http://www.joshuabell.com/
Notable instruments
Gibson Stradivarius

Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.

Childhood

Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P. Bell, Professor Emeritus of Indiana University, in Bloomington, a former Kinsey researcher.

Bell began taking violin lessons at the age of four after his mother discovered her son had taken rubber bands from around the house and stretched them across the handles of his dresser drawer to pluck out music he had heard her play on the piano. His parents got a scaled-to-size violin for their then five-year-old son and started giving him lessons. A bright student, Bell took to the instrument but lived an otherwise normal midwest Indiana life playing video games and excelling at sports, namely tennis and bowling, even placing in a national tennis tournament at the age of ten.

Bell studied as a boy first under Donna Bricht, widow of Indiana University music faculty member Walter Bricht. His second teacher was Mimi Zweig, and then he switched to the violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold after Bell's parents assured Gingold that they were not interested in pushing their son in the study of the violin but simply wanted him to have the best teacher for his abilities. Satisfied that the boy was living a normal life, Gingold took Bell on as his student. By age 12, Bell was serious about the instrument, thanks in large part to Gingold's inspiration.

At the age of 14, Bell appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He studied the violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, while managing to graduate from Bloomington High School North in 1984, In 1989, Bell received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance from Indiana University. His alma mater also honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award only two years after his graduation. He has been named an "Indiana Living Legend" and received the Indiana Governor's Arts Award.

Career

Joshua Bell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has since performed with almost all^{[citation needed]} of the world's major orchestras and conductors. As well as the standard concerto repertoire, Bell has performed new works—Nicholas Maw's violin concerto is dedicated to him, the recording of which won Bell a Grammy and gave the world premiere of the work in 1993. He performed the solo part on John Corigliano's Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film The Red Violin and was also featured in Ladies in Lavender. Bell also made an appearance in the movie Music of the Heart, a story about the power of music, with other notable violinists.

Bell's instrument is a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin called the Gibson ex Huberman, which was made in 1713 during what is known as Antonio Stradivari's "Golden Era." This violin had been stolen twice from the previous owner, Bronisław Huberman; the last time the thief confessed to the act on his deathbed. Bell had held and played the violin, and its owner at the time jokingly told Bell the violin could be his for four million dollars. Shortly thereafter, by chance, Bell came across the violin again and discovered it was about to be sold to a German industrialist to become part of a collection. According to the Joshua Bell website, Bell "was practically in tears." Bell then reportedly sold his current Stradivarius, the Tom Tyler, for a little more than two million dollars and made the purchase of the Gibson ex Huberman for a little under the four million dollar asking price. As with his previous Stradivarius violin, Bell entrusts the upkeep of the Gibson ex Huberman to expert luthier Emmanuel Gradoux-Matt. His first recording made with the Gibson ex Huberman was Romance of the Violin (under Sony Classical) in 2003. It sold more than 5 million copies and remained at the top of classical music charts for 54 weeks.^{[citation needed]} Joshua Bell's most recent CD is called At Home With Friends and was released September 29, 2009. It features Bell playing with artists of varied musical backgrounds, such as Chris Botti, Kristin Chenoweth, Regina Spektor, and Sting.

Bell is an artistic partner for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (starting in the 2004–2005 season) and a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also serves on the artists selection committee for the Kennedy Center Honors and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bell was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize on April 10, 2007, at Lincoln Center in New York City. The prize is given once every few years to classical instrumentalists for outstanding achievement. On May 3, 2007, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced that Bell had joined the faculty as a senior lecturer.

Bell collaborated with film composer Hans Zimmer by providing violin solos for the soundtrack for the 2009 film, Angels and Demons, based on Dan Brown's 2000 novel of the same name.

On May 26, 2011, Joshua Bell was named Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Washington Post experiment

In an experiment initiated by Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten, Bell donned a baseball cap and played as an incognito street busker at the Metro subway station L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 2007. The experiment was videotaped on hidden camera; among 1,097 people who passed by, only seven stopped to listen to him, and only one recognized him. For his nearly 45-minute performance, Bell collected $32.17 from 27 passersby (excluding $20 from the passerby who recognized him). The night prior, he earned considerably more playing the same repertoire at a concert. Weingarten won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for his article on the experiment.

Personal life

Bell resides in Gramercy Park, Manhattan.

Selected discography

Year	Album	Billboard Classical	Billboard 200
1988	Bruch Mendelssohn Violin Concertos, London Records	—	—
1989	Fauré Debussy Franck Violin Sonatas with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Decca Records	—	—
1990	Presenting Joshua Bell, Polygram Records	—	—
1991	Chausson Concerto, Ravel Piano Trio, London Records	—	—
1992	Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto #3 /Chausson: Poeme, London Records	—	—
1995	Prokofiev: Violin Concertos & Sonatas, London Records	—	—
1995	Brahms /Schumann Violin Concertos, London Records	—	—
1996	The Kreisler Album, London Records	—	—
1997	Barber / Walton/ Bloch Violin Concertos, Decca Records	—	—
1997	Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2, London Records	—	—
1999	Nicholas Maw Violin Concertos, Sony Classical	—	—
1999	Gershwin Fantasy, Sony Classical	—	—
2000	Jean Sibelius & Karl Goldmark: Violin Concertos, Sony Classical	—	—
2000	Short Trip Home, with Edgar Meyer, Sam Bush, Mike Marshall, Sony Classical	7	—
2001	Leonard Bernstein West Side Story Suite, Sony Classical	3	—
2002	Ludwig van Beethoven & Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos, Sony Classical	18	—
2004	Romance of the Violin, Sony Classical	2	176
2005	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Op. 35; Melodie; Danse Russe from Swan Lake (Act III), Sony Classical	9	—
2006	Voice of the Violin, Sony	2	—
2007	Corigliano The Red Violin, Sony	7	—
2007	The Essential Joshua Bell, Sony BMG Masterworks	19	—
2008	Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Sony BMG Masterworks	1	134
2009	The Best of Joshua Bell, Sony BMG Masterworks	12	—
2009	At Home with Friends, Sony BMG Masterworks	1	118

Soundtrack Albums

• Angels & Demons Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2009

  Joshua Bell, featured violinist

  Music composed by Hans Zimmer

• Defiance OST, 2008
• Ladies in Lavender Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2005: Joshua Bell, featured violinist
• The Red Violin featured violinist

External links

• Official Website
• Joshua Bell at Allmusic
• "Bell Man", by Mandy Katz; in-depth profile in moment magazine
• Interview on The Diane Rehm Show radio program
• Recording of Bell's performance in L'Enfant Plaza.
• BACH & friends Documentary
• Classical Archives Interview