Joshua Bell
violin
Seldom has a debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall attracted as much attention as that of 17-year-old Joshua Bell with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1985. At that time, however, the newcomer had already gained several years of stage experience: the violinist gave his first solo performance at the age of 14, as a guest of the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Riccardo Muti.
Joshua Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and had his first violin lessons at the age of four. From the age of twelve, he studied under the famous Josef Gingold, who also became his mentor. Since then, the American virtuoso has performed with practically every major orchestra in the world and worked with the most eminent conductors – he made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in May 2002 with William Walton’s Violin Concerto. Bell, who is equally successful as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor, was appointed music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2011. He has premiered works by Edgar Meyer, Behzad Ranjbaran and Nicholas Maw, for whose Violin Concerto recording he won a Grammy Award. In 1998 Bell collaborated with John Corigliano, recording his award-winning soundtrack for the film [The Red Violin]. Joshua Bell has also worked with musicians such as Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Anoushka Shankar, Frankie Moreno, Josh Groban and Sting. In addition to his artistic work, the musician is involved in projects such as Education Through Music and Turnaround Arts, which provide children with access to classical music. In 2021, he announced his partnership with the violin teaching app Trala to develop a unique curriculum for music education. Since 2001, Joshua Bell has played a 1713 Stradivarius owned by the legendary violin virtuoso Bronisław Huberman.
