Joshua Bell | Wanna Play Music

Born in
Bloomington, Indiana, GRAMMY Award winner Joshua Bell began taking violin lessons at the age of four after
his mother discovered him taking rubber bands from around the house and
stretching them across the handles of his dresser drawer to pluck out music
he’d heard her play on the piano. A bright student, Bell took to the instrument
but lived an otherwise normal midwest Indiana life playing video games and
excelling at sports, namely tennis and bowling, even placing in a national tennis
tournament at 10 years of age. At 14, Bell appeared as a soloist with the
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Richard Muti. He studied the violin at the
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, while graduating from Bloomington
High School North two years ahead of schedule. In 1989, Bell received an Artist
Diploma in Violin Performance from Indiana University.

Bell made his
Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and has since
performed with almost all of the world's major orchestras and conductors. Bell
also made an appearance in the movie Music
of the Heart, a story about the power of music, with other notable
violinists. Bell plays a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin called the Gibson ex
Huberman, made in 1713. In 2007, he was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize at New
York’s Lincoln Center. The prize is given once every few years to classical
instrumentalists for outstanding achievement.

Source: Wikipedia