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Profile
Learn more about this fantastic violin player.
Birthday:
December 9
Hometown: Bloomington, Indiana. The Indiana Historical
Society named Joshua an Indiana Living Legend in July 2000. Joshua
received the Indiana Arts Council Governor's Award in 2003.
Resides in: New York City
Sports he plays: Tennis, Golf, Bowling
Sports he watches: Football, basketball, baseball, golf and
tennis.
On long airplane trips: Plays computer games, watches DVDs,
reads and sleeps.
"Free" time on the road: Plays computer games, watches
DVDs, reads and sleeps. Oh, and hangs out with friends and family
if they are in that city.
Would like to improve: Golf score, organizational skills,
time management.
Most unique musical experience: Jamming with Bobby McFerrin
and Chick Corea at the Verbier Festival in July.
Most unique non-musical experience: Paragliding in Sun
Valley, ID before a performance with the Sun Valley Summer
Symphony.
Favorite television appearance: Sesame Street.
Alma Mater: Joshua received an Artist Diploma from the
Indiana University School of Music in 1989. He received a
Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1991.
Interesting project: Joshua worked with Tod Machover at the
MIT Media Lab on a computer-enhanced "hyperviolin". For more
information about the project, go to
http://www.media.mit.edu/hyperins/
Nonmusical accomplishments:
In 2001, he played with Mark McComber and Dale Douglas in the
Transamerica Pro-Am at the Silverado Resort in Napa, CA.
In 2000, he won the "Highest Individual Bowling Score" prize at
Classical Action's charity bowling tournament with a top score of
228 - a personal best. Joshua missed the subsequent "Up Your
Alley" tournaments, but he'll be back to defend his title in 2004.
The 1996 Crystal Caliburn World Winners:
World Champion/Windows Champion: Josh Bell 4,432,143,360
Macintosh Champion: Josh Bell: 3,492,645,580
Indiana State Junior Tennis Champion for the 9 and 10 year-olds
age group.
Unexpected places to find Joshua references:
Joshua is featured in Lilly Moscovitz's List of Hottest Guys
(compiled during World Civ, with commentary by Mia Thermopolis),
from
The Princess Diaries. To view the list, scroll to
Friday, September 26.
Joshua was the subject of a question on Who Wants to be a
Millionaire on August 16, 2001. The question was, "Joshua Bell is
known as a virtuoso of what musical instrument?" The answers were
A) Guitar B) Piano C) Cello D) Violin. The contestant had to use
his "phone a friend" to get the correct answer for the $32,000
question.
People magazine "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in 2000
and Glamour magazine "IT Men of the Millennium" in 1999.
MUSICAL FAQS
Strings: Joshua is using the Pirastro Evah Pirazzi line.
For more information, go to Pirastro
online.
Bow: Tourte
Private Lessons: Joshua does not give private lessons and
has no plans to do so in the immediate future.
Favorite Venues: Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Musikverein
and Concertgebouw
Video of Joshua Bell: West Side Story Suite from Central
Park: This video is not available and there are no plans
to produce it for sale at this time.
Video of Live from Lincoln Center: Joshua Bell at the
Penthouse with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: This video
is not available and there are no plans to produce it for sale at
this time.
Sheet Music from Recent Recordings: There are no plans to
publish the original arrangements from Gershwin Fantasy,
Short Trip Home, West Side Story Suite or Romance of
the Violin. Joshua's original cadenzas for the Beethoven,
Brahms, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Mozart violin concertos are not
available at this time. Bell's
body of work
Joshua Bell has recorded many of the standard concertos of the
violin repertoire, including the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. But
his recordings have also crossed over into bluegrass, pop and
movie soundtracks. Among them:
Josh Groban's album Closer, which includes a track of
Bell's violin playing.
The Red Violin: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of
compositions by John Corigliano for the 1999 film. The
compositions won an Academy Award for best original score.
Short Trip Home, a bluegrass collaboration with composer
Edgar Meyer.
Heartland: An Appalachian Anthology with musicians
including Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma, Bιla Fleck and Alison Krauss.
Ladies in Lavender: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,
with Bell playing compositions by Nigel Hess.
Where's that violin?
Bell plays the Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius, a violin with a
past of intrigue:
Created: 1713 in Italy
Once owned by: Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman.
Stolen: In 1919 in Vienna, but returned to Huberman within
weeks.
Stolen: In 1936 from New York's Carnegie Hall as Huberman
performed on another violin. He never saw it again.
Discovered: Half a century later, when the widow of a cafe
violinist produced it, claiming her husband had made a deathbed
confession to the theft.
Value: Bell paid $3 million to $4 million for the
instrument.
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