Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He is the music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Early life and education
Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, one of four children of Shirley Bell, a therapist, and Alan P. Bell, a psychologist and professor at Indiana University (IU), and former Kinsey researcher. His father was of Scottish descent and his mother was Jewish (her father was born in Mandatory Palestine and her mother was from Minsk).
Bell began playing the violin at age four after his mother discovered that he had taken rubber bands from around the house and stretched them across the handles of his nine dresser drawers to pluck out music he had heard her play on the piano. His parents got a scaled-to-size violin for him when he was five and started giving him lessons. Bell took to the instrument but had an otherwise normal Indiana childhood, playing video games and excelling at sports, especially tennis and bowling. He placed in a national tennis tournament at age ten.
Bell's first violin teacher was Donna Bricht, widow of Indiana University music faculty member Walter Bricht.
