- Born
- Birth nameJoshua David Bell
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Born in Bloomington, Indiana in 1967, Joshua Bell began playing the violin at age 4. Growing up, he didn't focus on the violin exclusively. His other interests included video games, computers, cars, and sports. In 1978, he was a national tennis champion. However, at age 11 he attended the Meadowmount music camp and subsequently began to devote more time to the violin. He began studying with Josef Gingold at Indiana University. In 1981, Bell began performing with some of the world's leading orchestras. In 1989, he graduated from Indiana University, and he moved to New York City shortly thereafter. Bell maintains a very busy schedule of playing, touring, and recording. He performs and records not only classical music but also contemporary, bluegrass, Gershwin, and Bernstein. He plays a 1713 Stradivarius, known as 'The Gibson'.- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- In July of 2007, Bell and former girlfriend Lisa Matricardi became first time parents to Josef Matricardi Bell. In January of 2010, Matricardi gave birth to Bell's twin sons, Benjamin and Samuel. Bell lives separately from Matricardi and his sons, residing just one block away in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan. As of 2015, all of Bell's children play a musical instrument.- IMDb mini biography by: elizabethdaugherty
- SpouseLarisa Martínez(October 5, 2019 - present)
- On January 12, 2007, with Washington Post Staff Writer Gene Weingarten, he pretended he was a violin street busker at a Washington, D.C. subway stop as an experiment to see if people would pay attention in their rush to get to work at 8 a.m. in the morning.
- Was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in May 2000.
- Graduated from Indiana University.
- Joining his alma mater Indiana University's renowned Jacobs School of Music as a faculty member
- Currently on a world tour
- I like blackjack. I like the psychology of poker. I'm addicted to the adrenaline of performing, and I think when you're used to having that high, you look for it in other things. Violinists are notorious gamblers [Henryk] Wieniawski and [Niccolo] Paganini lost their violins gambling.
- [on dealing with security issues for his $4 million Stradivarius] The last time it was stolen [1936], it was gone for fifty years. The thief confessed on his deathbed. He was a violinist and he covered it in shoe polish and played on it his whole life. But it's the best investment I've ever made, although I'll never see the profits because I will die with this in my hands. Traveling with it is like traveling with a baby. It's irreplaceable, but it won't spontaneously combust.
- [on encouraging his sons to be musicians] I wouldn't discourage them, but I'm [also] not pressuring them to stay in music. But it's absolutely necessary that they have music in their lives. Every child should have music. It's the best thing for the mind that anyone could do.
- I truly believe that the achievements of composers like Brahms or Beethoven ... [are] the greatest achievements of mankind, along with a very few other things. There's just a few minds like that in the century, and we're playing this great music, and so to do it justice you have to treat it like life and death.
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