Joshua bell violinist biography books
The Dance of the Violin
Author: Kathy Stinson
Publisher: Annick Press
Genre: Children’s Fiction/Picture Books
Publication Date: March 14, 2017
Rating:
*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this in exchange for my honest review*
My Thoughts:
This is the description published (because mine would NOT do this book justice :p)
“As a young student of the violin, Joshua Bell learns about an international competition to be held in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He chooses a piece of music, which his teacher suggests may be too difficult, but Joshua is determined. It’s a piece of music he loves. At the competition, Joshua experiences the usual jitters. Once his name is called, he strides to the stage and begins to play, but almost immediately, he makes a mistake. As he is about to walk off the stage, he asks the judges if could try again. They agree, and this time, the playing is impeccable.”
The illustrations in this book were lovely. I loved the way the illustrator used bright color to represent movement and emotion in music. (Sorry everyone, I couldn’t find pics of the illustrations for this one )
The story was beautiful as well. It was quite a surprise to learn that it was a true story. I think that children would love this story and that parents would love the values it teaches their children, namely resilience, perseverance and being brave enough to ask for a second chance. This book made me emotional because it brilliantly captured music and how it can seep into one’s soul, all consuming, and how many of us have the need to capture with music; images, people and feelings.
And the beauty we see and feel when it is captured .
Joshua Bell
American violinist (born 1967)
For other people named Joshua Bell, see Joshua Bell (disambiguation).
Musical artist
Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He is currently 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. His second was Mimi Zweig, and his third the violinist and pedagog Josef Gingold, who accepted Bell as a student after his parents assured him that they were not interested in pushing their son to be a star but simply wanted him to have the best teacher for his abilities. By age 12, Bell was serious about the instrument, thanks in large part to Gingold's inspiration.
At age 14, Bell appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti. He studied violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and graduated from Bloomington High School North
With a career spanning almost four decades, GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era. Bell has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and continues to maintain engagements as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor and as the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Bell’s highlights for the 2024-25 season include the release of two new albums: Thomas De Hartmann Rediscovered, which features the World Premiere recording of Ukrainian composer Thomas De Hartmann’s Violin Concerto, with conductor Dalia Stasevska and the INSO-Lviv Orchestra, out August 16, 2024 on Pentatone, as well as an album of Mendelssohn piano trios, which Bell recorded with longtime friends and collaborators Jeremy Denk and Steven Isserlis, out August 30, 2024 on Sony Masterworks. Bell will rejoin Denk and Isserlis in November 2024 for a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall, on a program featuring Fauré chamber music (which they will record together later this season for a future album release). An avid recitalist, Bell tours internationally to South America, Australia and mainland China, and performs his beloved “Voice and the Violin” program with soprano Larisa Martínez throughout North America. As guest soloist, Bell will appear with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He will both conduct and play with the DSO Berlin, as well as in his role as Music Director of the Academy of St. Martin of the Fields.
In 2011, Bell was named Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who formed the orchestra in 1959. Bell’s history with the Academy dates to 1986, when he first recorded the Bruch and Mendelssohn concertos with Marriner and the orchestra. Bell has since led the orchestra on several albums, most recently Bruch: Scottish F .