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.^[1] Bell's father was the late Alan P. Bell, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Indiana University, in Bloomington, a former Kinsey researcher.^[2]

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 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.^[3]

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 Jacobs School of Music, while managing to graduate from Bloomington High School North in 1984,^[4] a year 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.^[5] 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 (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 Violin 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.^[6]

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 (not counting $20 from the passerby who recognized him).^[5]

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. ^[7] On May 3, 2007 it was announced that Bell had joined the Indiana University Jacobs School of music faculty as senior lecturer.^[8].

Personal information

Bell resides in Gramercy Park, Manhattan. Bell is keen on sports such as golf and tennis.

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.

On August 24, in an open letter to his fans on his website, joshuabell.com, Bell writes this to his fans: "Hello everyone, - - It's Joshua Bell here. I haven’t written here in a very long time, so I thought it was way overdue for me to write a little something. I am composing this message on a train, on my way back to New York City from Saratoga Springs where I played the Barber concerto last night. - - I’d like to start by thanking those of you who have shown such an interest in my music and career. I am so grateful for the generous support over the years and by the various acts of kindness offered to me as well. The birthday wishes sent to me last December (and the year before!) were particularly touching. I am always happy when someone comes backstage after a concert and says ‘Hi, I’m from the forum!’, and although I don’t make a habit of reading what is written on this forum, please don’t mistake this for a lack of interest or appreciation – just that I am not always comfortable reading anything which has ME as the subject matter. (I have a hard time reading any interviews or articles about myself as well!) . - - As some of you know, I had to cancel my concerts in Italy a couple of weeks ago. The official reason was ‘a family emergency’, which was true. Although I like to keep my personal life as private as possible, I’d like to elaborate a little in this case, since my ‘family emergency’ was not exactly bad news (thank you, BTW, to those who sent me concerned emails) – quite to the contrary! I gather there has been some speculation already, but here is the story: - .. - A little background is necessary here. Many years ago I had a girlfriend named Lisa Matricardi. We were together for seven years, up until 1999. Although we are not together anymore as a couple, we have remained close and I think of her as family. A few years ago we discovered that we both had a keen interest in having a child. Of course having a child takes two people, and since neither of us had a proper ‘significant other’ up to the task, we arrived at an unconventional but certainly not unprecedented solution. We decided to try to have a child together, even though we both knew that we would be living our separate lives outside of sharing our parental responsibilities (and our deep friendship of course). I will keep the details to a minimum here, but to make a long story short, on July 31st Lisa gave birth to our baby boy. She was actually due to give birth on August 15th, but as fate would have it, he arrived two weeks early, just before I was meant to go to Cortona for some concerts. I decided that I simply had to witness my son’s first week of life, so I was sadly left with no other option than to cancel Cortona, a decision which was made a lot easier by the organizers of the festival who strongly encouraged me to fly home (I will be back at the festival next year!). - - So that’s my big news, and his name is Josef Matricardi Bell (the first name was inspired by my beloved teacher Josef Gingold, and the middle is Lisa’s last name). He will live with his mother, and I will continue to lead my crazy life of touring which I love, but now I have the significant responsibility of being the best parent that I can be. I’m sure it won’t be easy, but luckily I have a lot of support from my great family and friends as well as the great team of people that work with me (Josef is also lucky to have a great mother as well!). - - Thank you again, and I send my warmest regards to all. - - - Joshua"

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."

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.

References

External links

• Official Website
• Interview on The Diane Rehm Show radio program
• Article about Bell performing in Washington D.C.'s L'Enfant Plaza metro station, by Gene Weingarten.
• Recording of Bell's performance in L'Enfant Plaza.

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