Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell was born on December 9th, 1967 in Bloomington, Indiana. Legend has it that his mother started him in violin lessons after finding that he had stretched rubberbands across the handles of his dresser in order to play notes he had overheard when she played piano. In addition to violin, Bell was a normal kid who played tennis, bowled, and enjoyed video games. Bell is well-known for his instrument of choice: A 300-year-old Stradivarius, known as the Gibson ex Huberman, that he purchased for just under four million dollars. This is an upgrade from his prior Stradivarius, which he sold for approximately two million dollars when purchasing the Gibson.
Bell's first studies came under reknowned violinists Mimi Zweig and Josef Gingold. He began intensive one-on-one study with Gingold before the age of 12, showing his early love and dedication for music. By the time he was 14, Bell had already performed as a solo violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He attended Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music to study violin in college, after graduating from high school two years early. He was given Indiana University's Distinguished Alumni Service Award for his work only a scant two years after graduating from the school. In later years, he was awarded the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and named an Indiana living legend.
He made his first performance at Carnegie Hallin 1985 as a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Since then, Bell has made an appearance with virtually all of the top orchestras and conductors in the world. In addition to the traditional array of concertos, he has also performed newer pieces. His music has appeared in several films, including the Oscar-winning soundtrack of The Red Violin. Joshua Bell himself made a cameo appearance in Music of the Heart, a film about music and violinists trying to make their way. Bell's recording of Nicholas Maw's concerto was good enough to win a Grammy award in 1993.
Bell now serves as an artistic partner for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and occasionally teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is a member of the selection committee for Kennedy Center Honors musicians and serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at MIT. He was given the Avery Fisher Prize for classical instrumentalists in 2007. This award is only given out every few years when someone is deemed worth the honor, so this is a major accomplishment in Joshua Bell's musical career.
In one of the more interesting events of Bell's career, he went incognito in a Washington D.C. subway station. Wearing a baseball cap and playing as a street musician, only one out of over 1,000 passersby even recognized Bell. Sadly, very few people even stopped to listen to his music, showing that most people today are not that familiar with classical music. The entire experiment was devised and writted up by Gene Weingarten, a columnist for the Washington Post. The article later won the Pulitzer Prize for 2008.
Video Clips of Joshua Bell:
I particularly like showing the musicians play for Sesame Street as I think it's important to inspire children with the arts. Below is a video clip of Joshua Bell's Making of a Musician followed by Bell playing Beethoven.
Originally posted 2008-11-05 05:46:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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