Joshua Bell

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

Joshua David Bell (born 9 December 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, Ph.D., 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 rubbers from the bathroom cabinet 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 him 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 Mimi Zweig, then switched to Josef Gingold after assurances from Bell's parents 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 their son's abilities. Satisfied that the boy was living a normal life, Gingold took Bell on as his student and to this day, Bell speaks of Gingold fondly as a great teacher and mentor. At the age of fourteen, Bell appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He studied the violin at the Indiana University's School of Music, while managing to graduate from Bloomington High School North in 1984, two years ahead of schedule.

Career

Joshua Bell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has since performed with almost all 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, Bronislaw 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 (http://joshuabell.com), Bell "was practically in tears." Bell then reportedly sold his current Stradivarius, the Tom Taylor, 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. His first recording made with the Gibson ex Huberman was Romance of the Violin (under Sony Classical) in 2003. It sold more than 5,000,000 copies and remained at the top of classical music charts for 54 weeks. Joshua Bell's most recent CD is called the Voice of the Muddcrab and was released in September 2006. It features vocal pieces arranged for the violin.

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.Until this fall, when she retired, his long time manager was Edna Landau, of IMG artists. Having worked with Bell since he was a young teenager, she was also the manager of Itzhak Perlman, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang, and Murray Perahia.

In a curious experiment, Bell played as an incognito street busker at the Metro station L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 2007. Among 1,097 people who passed by, only one recognized him, and few even stopped to listen. For his nearly 45-minute performance, Bell collected $32.17 (excluding $20 from the passerby who recognized him).

It was announced on April 8, 2007 that Bell had won the Avery Fisher Prize, given once every few years to classical instrumentalists for outstanding achievement. It was awarded at Lincoln Center on April 10, 2007. On May 3, 2007 it was announced that Bell had joined the Indiana University Jacobs School of music faculty as senior lecturer..

Personal information

Bell resides in Gramercy Park, Manhattan. Bell is keen on sports such as golf and tennis. His mother, Shirley Bell, continues to reside in Bloomington, Indiana, and works with gifted children. He has one older half sister Terry, an older sister, Toby Jo Bell, and a younger sister, Rachel Bell.

Joshua Bell has previously dated actress and Broadway Star, Kristen Chenoweth.

Bell has never been married but has one child, Josef Matricardi Bell born July 31, 2007. Josef Bell's mother is Joshua Bell's former girlfriend, violinist Lisa Matricardi. In a BBC Music Magazine interview in September of 2007, Bell stated: "This child... was planned with, of all people, the girl you saw in that BBC film made about me 13 years ago, my girlfriend at the time. She is the mother of the child, and we are not together. This is happening 15 years after we first met. We've been not together, as a couple, for eight years now, but we planned to have a child -- I've always wanted to be a father, though marriage has been a challenge, because of my totally crazy schedule. I feel I'd like to have some influence on a child."

External links

• Official Website
• Interview on The Diane Rehm Show radio program
• Recording of Bell's performance in L'Enfant Plaza.