JOSHUA BELL

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JOSHUA BELL
Joshua David Bell (born 9 December 1967) is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist

Born December 9, 1967 (1967-12-09) (age 41)
Origin Bloomington, IN, U.S.
Genre(s) Classical
Occupation(s) Violinist
Instrument(s) Violin
Years active 1980s - Present
http://www.joshuabell.com/


Childhood
Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist.
His mother is Jewish and his father a Christian. Bell's father is the late Alan P. Bell, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Indiana University, in Bloomington, a former Kinsey researcher.

Bell began taking violin lessons at the age of four after his mother discovered her son had taken rubber bands from around the house and stretched them across the handles of his dresser drawer to pluck out music he had heard her play on the piano. His parents got a scaled-to-size violin for their then five-year-old son and started giving him lessons. 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 the age of ten.

Bell studied as a boy first under Mimi Zweig, then switched to the renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold after Bell's parents assured Gingold that they were not interested in pushing their son in the study of the violin but simply wanted him to have the best teacher for his abilities. Satisfied that the boy was living a normal life, Gingold took Bell on as his student. By 12 Bell was serious about the instrument, thanks in large part to Gingold's inspiration.

At the age of fourteen, Bell appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He studied the violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, while managing to graduate from Bloomington High School North in 1984, two years ahead of schedule. 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 only two years after his graduation. He has been named an “Indiana Living Legend” and received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award.


Career
Joshua Bell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has since performed with almost all of the world's major orchestras and conductors. As well as the standard concerto repertoire, Bell has performed new works—Nicholas Maw's violin concerto is dedicated to him, the recording of which won Bell a Grammy, and gave the world premiere of the work in 1993. He performed the solo part on John Corigliano's Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film The Red Violin and was also featured in Ladies in Lavender. Bell also made an appearance in the movie Music of the Heart, a story about the power of music, with other notable violinists.

Bell's instrument is a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin called the Gibson ex Huberman, which was made in 1713 during what is known as Antonio Stradivari's "Golden Era." This violin had been stolen twice from the previous owner, Bronisław Huberman; the last time the thief confessed to the act on his deathbed.

Bell had held and played the violin, and its owner at the time jokingly told Bell the violin could be his for four million dollars. Shortly thereafter, by chance, Bell came across the violin again and discovered it was about to be sold to a German industrialist to become part of a collection. According to the Joshua Bell website (http://joshuabell.com), Bell "was practically in tears." Bell then reportedly sold his current Stradivarius, the Tom Taylor, for a little more than two million dollars and made the purchase of the Gibson ex Huberman for a little under the four million dollar asking price.

His first recording made with the Gibson ex Huberman was Romance of the Violin (under Sony Classical) in 2003. It sold more than 5,000,000 copies and remained at the top of classical music charts for 54 weeks. Joshua Bell's most recent CD is called Vivaldi: The Four Seasons and was released near the end of summer in 2008. It features The Four Seasons, four concerti written by the baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi.

Bell is an artistic partner for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (starting in the 2004–2005 season) and a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also serves on the artists selection committee for the Kennedy Center Honors and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[6] Bell's long time manager Edna Landau, of IMG Artists, retired this fall. She had been working with Bell since his teenage years and was the manager of Itzhak Perlman, Petr Matejak, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang, and Murray Perahia.

In a curious experiment initiated by Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten, Bell donned a baseball cap and played as an incognito street busker at the Metro subway station L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 2007. The experiment was videotaped on hidden camera; among 1,097 people who passed by, only seven stopped to listen to him, and only one recognized him. For his nearly 45-minute performance, Bell collected $32.17 from 27 passersby (excluding $20 from the passerby who recognized him).Weingarten won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for his article on the experiment.

Bell was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize on April 10, 2007 at Lincoln Center in New York City. The prize is given once every few years to classical instrumentalists for outstanding achievement.[9] On May 3, 2007 the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced that Bell had joined the faculty as a senior lecturer.


Personal life
Bell resides in Gramercy Park, Manhattan. He has never been married but has one child, Josef Matricardi Bell, born July 31, 2007. Bell enjoys sports such as golf and tennis. He has dated actress and Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth.


Selected discography
Angels & Demons Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2009
Joshua Bell, featured violinist
Music composed by Hans Zimmer
Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Sony BMG Masterworks, 2008
The Red Violin Concerto, Sony BMG Masterworks, 2007
The Essential Joshua Bell, Sony BMG Masterworks, 2007
Voice of The Violin, Sony Classical, 2006
George Gershwin Fantasy / West Side Story / The Red Violin, Sony Classical, 2006
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Op. 35; Melodie; Danse Russe from Swan Lake (Act III), Sony Classical, 2005
Romance of The Violin, Sony Classical, 2003
Ludwig van Beethoven & Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos, Sony Classical, 2002
Leonard Bernstein: Westside Story Suite, Sony Classical, 2001
Jean Sibelius & Karl Goldmark: Violin Concertos, Sony Classical, 2000
Gershwin Fantasy, Sony Classical, 1998

METRODAKİ KEMANCI



Soğuk bir Ocak sabahı, bir adam Washington DC'de bir metro istasyonunda, kemanla 45 dakika boyunca altı Bach eseri çalar. Bu süre içinde, çoğu işe yetişme telaşındaki yaklaşık bin kişi kemancının önünden geçip, gider.

Kemancı çalmaya başladıktan ancak üç dakika kadar sonra, ilk kez orta yaşlı bir adam kemancıyı fark edip, yavaşlar ve birkaç saniye sonra da gitmek zorunda olduğu yere yetişmek üzere yine hızla yoluna devam eder.

Kemancı ilk bir dolar bahşişini bundan bir dakika kadar sonra alır. Bir kadın yürümesine ara vermeksizin parayı kemancının önüne koyduğu kaba atarak, hızla geçer, gider.

Birkaç dakika sonra, bir başka adam duraklayıp, eğilerek dinlemeye başlar ancak saatine göz attığında işe geç kalmamak için acele ettiğini belirten ifadelerle hızla yoluna devam eder.

En fazla dikkatle duran ise üç yaşlarında bir oğlan çocuğu olur. Annesinin çekiştirmelerine rağmen, çocuk önünde durur ve dikkatle kemancıya bakar. En sonunda annesi daha hızlı, çekiştirerek çocuğu yürümeye zorlar. Oğlan arkasına dönüp dönüp kemancıya bakarak, çaresizce annesinin peşinden gider. Buna benzer şekilde birkaç çocuk daha olur ve hepsi de anne, babaları tarafından yürümeye devam için zorlanarak, uzaklaştırılırlar.

Çaldığı 45 dakika boyunca kemancının önünde sadece 6 kişi, çok kısa bir süre durur. 20 kişi duraklamadan, yürümeye devam ederek, para verir. Kemancı çaldığı süre içinde 32 dolar toplar. Çalmayı bitirdiğinde ise sessizlik hakim olur ve kimse onun durduğunu fark etmez, alkışlamaz.

Hiç kimse onun dünyanın en iyi kemancısı Joshua Bell olduğunu ve elindeki 3,5 milyon dolarlık kemanla, yazılmış en karmaşık eserleri çaldığını anlamaz. Oysa Joshua Bell'in metrodaki bu mini konserinden iki gün önce Boston'da verdiği konser biletleri ortalama 100 dolara satılmıştı...

Bu gerçek bir hikayedir ve Joshua Bell'in öylesine bir kılıkla metroda keman çalması, Washington Post gazetesi tarafından algılama, keyif alma ve öncelikler üzerine yapılan bir sosyal deney gereği kurgulanmıştır. Sorgulanan şeyler; sıradan bir yerde, uygunsuz bir saatte güzelliği algılayabiliyor muyuz? Durup ondan keyif alıyor muyuz? Beklenmedik bir ortamda, bir yeteneği tanıyabiliyor muyuz? İdi...

Bu deneyden çıkarılacak kıssadan hisse ise, dünyanın en iyi müzisyeni, dünyadaki en iyi müziği çalarken, önünde durup, dinleyecek bir dakikamız dahi yoksa, başka neleri kaçırıyoruz acaba?

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Martha Argerich (piano), Mischa Maisky (cello), Joshua Bell (violin), Henning Kraggerud (violin), Yuri Bashmet (viola) dans un mouvement du quintette de Chostakovitch, interprété lors du Verbier Festival 2008.

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