JOSHUA BELL

One of the most celebrated violinists of his era

March 2022

With a career spanning over thirty years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, conductor and director, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era.  Born in December 9, 1967 in Bloomington, Indiana (USA) Bell received his first violin at age four from his parents after they found he was making music by stretching rubber bands to different lengths on dresser drawers. His violin studies became serious when at age 12 he attended the Meadowmount music camp in Westport, New York. There he met the renowned teacher Josef Gingold of Indiana University, who later became his mentor. Bell made his orchestral debut at age 14 with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra—becoming the orchestra’s youngest-ever soloist—and he made his first recording at age 18.  

He received a Grammy Award for his performance in the first recording of Nicholas Maw’s Violin Concerto (2000) and in 2007 he received the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.  In 2011 Bell was named music director of the acclaimed Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chamber ensemble, established by British violinist and conductor Neville Marriner. 

Bell maintains an avid interest in film music, commemorating the 20th anniversary of The Red Violin (1998) in 2018-19. The film’s Academy-Award winning soundtrack features Bell as soloist; in 2018, Bell brings the film with live orchestra to various summer festivals and the New York Philharmonic.  

Committed to expanding classical music’s social and cultural impact, Bell has collaborated with peers including Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, Anoushka Shankar, Frankie Moreno, Josh Groban, and Sting. In Spring 2019, Bell joins his longtime friends, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Jeremy Denk, for a ten-city American trio tour. 

As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums garnering Grammy®, Mercury®, Gramophone and ECHO Klassik awards.  

In 2007, a Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post story centered on Bell performing incognito in a Washington, D.C. metro station sparked an ongoing conversation about artistic reception and context. Bell decided to play on the metro station to see how many people will stop to listen and how much money would he get. 

Hardly anyone stopped. In fact, out of 1,097 people that passed Bell by, only 27 gave any money, and only 7 actually stopped and listened for any length of time. He got exactly $52.17 Which is not very much. And $20 of that was from the one person who did recognize him. On the flipside, though, the story went viral, drawing attention to people’s attitudes to buskers and how they’re often ignored. Bell returned to the subway in September 2014, but this time his appearance was announced and it was a massive triumph with thousands of attendees.  

Bell’s most precious treasure is his instrument: “My violin is more than 300 years old and it’s believed to be one of only five or six instruments made in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy. The violin has belonged to many, including the English violinist George Alfred Gibson.”