Joshua Bell: America’s Most Popular Violin Maestro

Joshua Bell, the Grammy-award-winning violinist has a career spanning over four decades and is one of the most celebrated musicians of this era. The artist has performed with nearly every major orchestra in the world while serving as the music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Even after four long decades as a violinist professional, Joshua continues to maintain his spot as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, and performance conductor in the industry. The season of 2024 highlights Bell’s international tour of The Elements, a new project that features great work from 5 of the major living composers from around the world.

Let’s take a look at his journey from a childhood prodigy to a living legend.

Introduction to his greatest love: violin

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, becoming a violinist was in the cards for Bell from his childhood. The musician started playing violin at just the age of four. Some children are attracted to music, and some are gifted by the superpower. Bell is among the latter. He used to take rubber bands from around his house and stretch them across the handles of his dresser drawer just to pluck out music he had heard her play on the piano. This is what made his parents understand Bell’s passion and they finally bought a violin (a scaled-to-size one) for Bell at the age of five and started to give him lessons. This went further as time passed, Bell became more hardworking, perfecting his playing and practicing rigorously. Soon, this brought results for the young Joshua Bell as he debuted as a solo artist not soon after, at just the age of 14, Bell debuted as a solo violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In 1984, Joshua Bell graduated from Bloomington High School North, and in 1989, he received an Artist Diploma from Indiana University in violin performance. Just two years after his graduation, Bell was honored with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award by IU.

Remarkable career

At the age of 18, Joshua made his first recording. When he debuted as a soloist at 14 as a soloist with Riccardo Muti, he became the orchestra’s youngest-ever soloist. In 2007, Bell became a senior lecturer at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. One of his most recognized performances was at The Red Violin Concerto. Here, Bell performed It was a concert version of John Corigliano’s composition for the film The Red Violin (1998), which won Acedmey awards. He collaborated with pianist Jeremy Denk, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra which was in his two CD labrum, released in 2007.

Some of his releases include For the Love of Brahms (2016), and Scottish Fantasy (2018). British violinist and conductor Neville Marriner established the Academy of St. Martin, and in 2011, Bell became the music director of the academy in the Fields chamber ensemble. With the same ensemble, Bell directed Ludwig van Beethoven’s fourth and seventh symphonies which debuted at no 1 on the Billboards chart.

Awards and recognition for the gifted virtuoso

After making his first recording at the age of 18, Joshua Bell started making appearances as a soloist, both with orchestras and small groups. He performed as a soloist as well as a conductor. This helped him become really known around the world, earning him recognition and awards for his creativity and masterly skills at violin. In 2000, Bell earned his first Grammy award for his performance in the first recording of Nicholas Maw’s Violin Concerto. Later in 2007, the violin expert received the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.

Since his first Grammy win, Joshua Bell has been nominated for six Grammy Awards. Bell was also named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America while being deemed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. His recognitions do not stop here, in 2000, Bell was named an Indiana Living Legend.

His skills and creative direction have impressed everyone in the country - from the President to the Supreme Court judges. Joshua Bell participated in President Barack Obama’s Committee on an Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special, named “Joshua Bell: Seasons of Cuba” on the Arts and Humanities’s mission to Cuba. It celebrated the renewed cultural diplomacy between the United States and Cuba. In his career, Bell has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the country.

The Washington Post Subway Experiment - The anonymous busker

In 2007, The Washington Post, one of the most eminent publications in the world conducted an experiment that featured Joshua Bell. On January 12, 2007, at 7:51 am, the violinist positioned himself against a wall on a subway in Washington. There, he played six classical compositions but nobody noticed or even recognized the famous violinist. The musician was part of an experiment where he went to the metro station incognito which is why he received any attention from the crowd. He played Bach’s ‘Chaconne’, one of the most popular and greatest musical pieces ever written, and used a violin that is worth $3.5 million, and still was unnoticed. Later, the vidoe was posted on YouTube and gained recognition which made him return to the same subway in 2014. This time, people were informed about his performance there which immediately resulted in a packed house.

Unknown facts -

    • The architecture of a space influences his performance

In 2016, Bell was interviewed with the National Trust for Historic Preservation where he stated that the architecture of a space where he was about to perform influenced the performance. He said, “Well, in my line of business, certainly the architecture of a space influences the sound, which then influences the way we play. How you articulate your sounds onstage varies depending on what you think the audience is taking in. So if it’s a very dry space it may influence your tempo. If it’s a very boomy, cavernous space I might play differently. Just like an actor in a play, you know, the way you project your voice does depend on what the space is like.”

    • A year of “dabbling”

To learn a new piece, Bell usually takes a year of “dabbling” which also includes four to six hours a day of practice. Joshua Bell also plays each concerto for a straight month before returning it to his repertoire.

    • A 300-year old Stradivarius

The instrument that Joshua Bell plays is a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin, called the 'Gibson ex Huberman'. The instrument was made in 1713 and has been stolen twice from Bronisław Huberman, its previous owner.

Unarguably, Joshua Bell is one of the greatest things the world of music has to offer. We can only hope for more performances and soundtracks in the near future.