First published in "Brentwood Magazine", Spring, 2002
"Joshua
Bell plays like a god!" cried John Corigliano into the TV cameras last year,
clutching his first Oscar for Best Original Score. He was referring to the brilliant
young violinist he had hired to breathe life into the score for the poetic independent
film, The Red Violin. In fact, Bell inspired Corigliano so much that the composer
wrote the first violin concerto of his career.For Bell, the virtuoso who began his international solo career at age 14, working on Red Violin had some inspiring moments also. As artistic consultant, Bell helped the actors pantomime virtuoso performances of their own. Of course, there are some things you just have to leave up to the professionals. So when British actor Jason Flemyng had trouble pulling off a scene that called for close-up shots of him whipping his on-screen lover, Greta Scacchi, into a frenzy with his instrument, Bell ended up performing the close-ups himself, spending a day wrapped in a naked Scacchi. Nice work if you can get it.
Bell's groupies - and they are legion - would say Scacchi was the one who got lucky that day. For them, the 33-year-old Bell is not just a classical musician. He's got, well, something extra. That something extra that makes composers like Corigliano giddy, that makes People magazine call him one of "The 50 Most Beautiful People In the World" and that makes Glamour dub him one of "Six Men of the Millennium."
And though he's cute, he's not just another pretty face. Bell really does play like a god. While his record label worked at packaging him as the Gen-X violinist hunk, Bell was earning his status in the classical music world the old-fashioned way, by shredding every great concerto ever written for violin. Bell gets behind modern composers with as much energy as the dead ones, joining Wynton Marsalis on his Grammy-winning children's project, Listen to the Story Teller, and recording the original violin concerto by composer Nicholas Maw, which landed Bell a Grammy last year. Bell also collaborated with college buddy Edgar Meyer on his original composition, the Grammy-nominated Short Trip Home.
Bell's parents, both psychologists, saw sparks of genius in their kid, but also realized that he had the tenacity of a pit bull when any kind of puzzle was put in front of him. They handed him a violin at four when they found him trying to adjust the tone on an instrument he had built in his bedroom using rubber bands and a dresser. "I was very lucky to have parents who started me young," says Bell who insists that becoming brilliant at the violin was, for him, natural and just a lot of fun.
"I'm not disciplined! I think of being disciplined as making yourself do something that you know you should do, but you don't want to do. I'm lousy at that. Growing up I always crammed the morning of the test. What I am is compulsive. When I was first learning, I would be obsessive about getting something right, and not stopping until I got it right. But I did that with a lot of things. I was really obsessive about sports, too."
Bell became a state tennis champion at 10 and a legend in the local video arcade where his initials topped the high score list on many a game. He would wave goodbye to his mom at the front door of music school and run right out the back door to the arcade to defend his title before class.
Who knows what video game Bell might have gone on to invent if it had not been for legendary European violin teacher, Josef Gingold, who happened to retire in Bell's hometown of Blooming, Indiana to pass his love for violin on to the good people of the Midwest? "You can never really know for sure, but it is possible that if it weren't for Gingold I might have done something else with my life. He had the most beautiful sound of any violinist I have ever heard. Music was fed into me, especially with Gingold, as a way of life. It became apparent to me - even when I was young - that music could change people's lives, change the way you think, the way you feel. When you learn a piece of Beethoven, it becomes so deeply meaningful that you can't live without that."At 14, Bell won a high profile competition and debuted as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He cut his first album before starting college at the University of Indiana, and somehow managed to sidestep the common pitfalls of child prodigies. By the age of 30, Bell had cut 24 albums and played Carnegie Hall.
The cover of Bell's latest album, West Side Story Suites, shows the mature Bell clad in a leather jacket, leaning into the camera with a look that says, "Come and get me…and I'll make you some cocoa." Bell recommends this new album for classical virgins. "Bernstein is one of the great composers. The album has West Side Story, which is popular, but it also has Bernstein's classical composition, Serenade. That is something you will find in the great music halls, so it bridges the gap nicely."
Bell treats L.A. to the West Coast premier of West Side Story Suites this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, where he'll appear with the L.A. Philharmonic. The performance will include a 20-minute journey through the unforgettable West Side Story landscape, narrated by Bell's violin as well as an arrangement by Corigliano, "Make Our Garden Grow" from Candide. Bell will appear at the Bowl with his significant other of eight years - a Stradivarius crafted in 1732, and played by Pagannini and Joachim. Valued at well over $2 million, the rare instrument was a hefty investment for the young artist. "I'll spend many years paying it off, but I was really lucky to have acquired it. An instrument like this affects the whole way you think about music."
Despite his crossover sex appeal, Bell squirms at being labeled an ambassador of art. " I can't say I see myself as an ambassador of art! I'm much more selfish than that. I guess there is a certain missionary in me. I love bringing music to people and making them feel what I feel when I play. It's one of the reasons I enjoy music so much. But, to be perfectly honest, 80 percent of what drives me is the personal challenge of creating. That's not the generous answer, but it's the truth." - Elizabeth Blozan
Bell plays Bernstein at the Hollywood Bowl Tuesday, August 21 at 8 p.m. Available seating can be viewed and purchased through Ticketmaster's online system linked to Hollywoodbowl.org. West Side Story Suites, released by Sony Classical, is available in stores now. Joshua Bell is available, too, and can be found on Joshuabell.com.
