Experts & Speakers Faculty Profile
Joshua Bell
Senior Lecturer in Music (Violin; Chamber Music)
Senior Lecturer
Jacobs School of Music
Education:
- Artist Diploma at Indiana University, 1989
Background:
Joshua Bell came to national attention at the age of 14 in a highly acclaimed orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. A Carnegie Hall debut, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a recording contract followed soon thereafter. Today, he is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra leader. In addition to his concert career, Bell enjoys chamber music collaborations with artists such as Pamela Frank and Steven Isserlis.
Bell has performed around the world at the Verbier, Tuscan Sun, Mostly Mozart, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Menuhin, Gstaad, and Enescu festivals, and the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall. He frequently performs with major orchestras, including the Russian National Orchestra, Czestochowa Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony. and The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.
An exclusive Sony Classical artist with more than 30 CDs recorded, Bell's recent releases include the soundtracks for Angels & Demons and Defiance, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, The Red Violin Concerto by John Corigliano, The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, The Essential Joshua Bell, Voice of the Violin, and Romance of the Violin. In 2004, Romance of the Violin was named Classical CD of the Year, and Bell was named Classical Artist of the Year.
Actively recording since 1988, Bell has made critically-acclaimed recordings of the concertos of Beethoven and Mendelssohn (featuring his own cadenzas), Sibelius, and Goldmark, as well as the Grammy-winning Nicholas Maw concerto. His Grammy-nominated recording Gershwin Fantasy premiered a new work for violin and orchestra based on themes from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Its success led to a Grammy-nominated all-Bernstein recording that included the premiere of the West Side Story Suite as well as a new recording of the composer's Serenade. With the composer and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, Bell appeared on the Grammy-nominated crossover recording Short Trip Home and a disc of concert works by Meyer and the 19th-century composer Giovanni Bottesini. Bell also collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on the Grammy-winning spoken-word children's album Listen to the Storyteller and Bela Fleck's Grammy-winning Perpetual Motion. He has twice performed on the Grammy Awards telecast, performing music from Short Trip Home and West Side Story Suite.
Bell holds a Grammy Award and Mercury Music Prize for the Maw concerto recording with Sir Roger Norrington and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Germany's Echo Klassik for Sibelius/Goldmark concerto recording with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He received the Gramophone Award for his recording of the Barber and Walton violin concertos and Bloch's Baal Shem. Bell is the recipient of the 2008 Academy of Achievement award for exceptional accomplishment in the arts, and in 2009 was honored by Education Through Music for his dedication to sharing his love of classical music with disadvantaged youth.
Bell's performances for Sony Classical film soundtracks also include The Red Violin, which won the Oscar for Best Original Score, the Classical Brit-nominated Ladies in Lavender, and Academy Award-winning film Iris, in an original score by James Horner, while appearing as himself in the film Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep. He has been seen on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show, Tavis Smiley, Charlie Rose, CBS Sunday Morning, Sesame Street, A&E's Biography, and on the PBS programs Great Performances-Joshua Bell: West Side Story Suite from Central Park, Joshua Bell at the Penthouse-Live From Lincoln Center, Memorial Day Concert. He was one of the first classical artists to have a music video air on VH1, and he has been the subject of a BBC Omnibus documentary. Bell has been profiled in publications ranging from Newsweek to People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People issue, Gramophone, and USA Today.
Bell and his two sisters grew up on a farm in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his first violin at age 4, and by age 12 he was serious about the instrument, thanks in large part to the inspiration of renowned violinist and pedagogue, former Jacobs School of Music Professor Josef Gingold.
In 1989, Bell received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance from Indiana University. His alma mater also honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1991. He has been named an "Indiana Living Legend" and received the Indiana Governor's Arts Award. In 2005, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, and he was the 2007 recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize.
