Joshua David Bell (born 9 December 1967) is anAmericanviolinist. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of today.
Bell was born inBloomington,Indiana,United States. His father was apsychologist andtherapist. He began violin lessons at the age of four after his mother found that Bell had takenrubber 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 very small violin and started giving him lessons. He learned the violin very quickly, but also had time to enjoy things such asvideo games andsports.
Bell's first violin teacher suggested that he should learn withJosef Gingold. Bell says that Gingold was a great teacher. At the age of fourteen, Bell appeared as a soloist with thePhiladelphia Orchestra conducted byRiccardo Muti. He studied the violin at theIndiana University'sJacobs School of Music, while managing to graduate from Bloomington High School North in 1984.
Joshua Bell first played in theCarnegie Hall,New York in 1985 with theSaint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has since performed with almost all of the world's majororchestras andconductors. He has played all the well knownconcertos as well as new works. In 1993, he gave the first performance ofNicholas Maw's violin concerto which was dedicated to him. The recording of this work won Bell aGrammy award. He performed the solo part onJohn Corigliano's Oscar-winning soundtrack for themovieThe Red Violin and was also featured inLadies in Lavender. Bell also made an appearance in the movieMusic of the Heart, a story about the power of music, with other famous violinists.
Bell's violin is a 300-year-oldStradivarius violin called the Gibson ex Huberman, which was made in 1713, a time when Stradivarius was making his best instruments. This violin had been stolen twice from the previous owner,Bronislaw Huberman; the last time the thief confessed as he was dying to having stolen it. 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 afterwards, by chance, Bell came across the violin again and discovered it was about to be sold to a wealthyGerman to become part of a collection. According to the Joshua Bell website Bell "was practically in tears." Bell then sold theStradivarius violin that he had at the time for a little more than two million dollars and bought the Gibson ex Huberman for a little under the four million dollar asking price. His first recording made with the Gibson ex Huberman wasRomance of the Violin. It sold more than 5,000,000 copies and remained at the top of classical music charts for 54 weeks. In September 2006 he made aCD called theVoice of the Violin and was released in September 2006. It hassongs arranged for the violin. He played the songVocalise byRachmaninoff in theRoyal Albert Hall at theLast Night of the Proms in 2007. He is a visiting professor at theRoyal Academy of Music in London.
In an unusual experiment theWashington Post asked Bell to stand in the street andbusk (play his violin) by the entrance to aWashington Metro station one cold morning in January 2007. During the 45 minutes that he played more than 1000 people passed him but only a few people stopped to listen, most of whom were children. Only one person recognized him and one other person realized he was a great violinist.
Bell lives inManhattan. He is keen on sports such as golf and tennis. He has three children born by a former girlfriend, however married another woman on 5th October 2019.