Joshua Bell - Living the Classical Life: Episode 16

hi I'm Joshua Bell and this is living the classical life pleasure to meet you mr. bone nice well thanks for being here welcome to you I can actually welcome you yes make a trip in your beautiful home Thanks I grew up following your diverse musical projects recordings and concerts and at an early age you're already an American icon and a major figure in the musical world thank you so he started music at a very early age at what point did you realize that this was a passion for you what inspired you you know I I started playing the violin when I was four four years old my parents gave me the violin but already at that time there was already a lot of music in my head and in my family because it was just part of growing up for me was music my mother my sisters everyone played music so I got the violin at four and I was probably sort of passionate about it right away and on a certain level as much as a four-year-old can be I didn't always want to practice and all that all that but I think I really did love it right away it wasn't until I was about 12 or 13 that I started thinking that this is really like a way of life like this is I can make a living from this couldn't really be my life as an adult you know I you don't think like that as a young person but it was right around that time 12 or 13 so youtube videos of surfaced recently of you at around 12 with galamian and at 14 with him Gingold you projected a seriousness at that age was there also a certain joy in well that's called shine shine I was I was a shy kid and serious I guess you I was serious about ever even if it was playing video games I was very serious about it I took it very seriously I wanted to get the high score highest score and the arcade and when we used up arcades I would get very serious about it I think that was that seriousness about everything I did was probably helped me with music but of course was joy I mean music I enjoyed it I still do I mean it's it's it's the thing I love to do the most play the violin make music and even as a kid I think it was the thing I I really did enjoy more than any anything else I also had teachers that even from the beginning my very first teacher looking back she might not have been she's not alive anymore but she might not have been the perfect teacher as far as how to hold the instrument correctly I had to fix a lot of things later in life but what she did give me was she was a feeling of joy for music when I started which I think had I started with someone that was really a taskmaster and trying to get it just right it might have killed it for me so I'm very grateful to all my teachers first her and then my next teacher woman named Mimi swag who did fix a lot of things for me she kind of she came along for me just at the right time and then and then Joseph Gingold who more than anyone I've ever met in music instilled a sense of joy for playing the instrument for making music I've never met anyone like him that had that much joy for what he did and that definitely rubbed off on me so it's instill I just love music and and but I'm grateful to my teachers and my parents for always giving me that I always associate music with with fun and and and enjoy tell us about Joseph Gingold who came to him as a boy he was a pupil of Jean Isaiah and was concert master of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell what was his influence on you on your life on your music well Gingold is it's my connection with jingle goes back actually even to the time I think I played for him when I was six years old my teacher at the time knew him a little bit she and and I was I grew up in the town where Joseph Gingold was teaching in Bloomington Indiana so he was a teacher at the Indiana University School of Music which is one of the is probably the largest music school in the world and had some of the greatest teachers in the world but this my parents didn't know when they moved to Bloomington when I was I just around the time I was born they they love music but they thought they were moving to the middle of nowhere because of my father's job at the University in the middle of nowhere culturally but as it turns out this is incredible music school so I grew up down the street from Joseph Gingold student of his ie and man who played under Toscanini and George Szell I mean it's pretty lucky for me just geographically and so I actually played from when I was very young and then later on when I was 12 years old that's I met him funny enough not even in Bloomington but at a at a summer camp where galamian taught is called met amount and Gingold taught there and he remembered me from from Indiana but we sort of came into contact there and he coached me and after that I was so inspired I just I asked my parents I didn't ask him myself I was very shy but my parents asked him please teach our son and and and he'd be from then on became like a grandfather to me in so many ways and incredible his stories Gingold stories from the time he was I mean when he was he played under Toscanini with the NBC Symphony and and led the Cleveland Orchestra Inu Yasha Heifetz and Fritz Kreisler and all the greats and would tell me stories all day long about these guys how often did you see Gingold for lessons and did these feel like they were a certain sense of pressure you know I I started seeing Gingold as a teacher when I was 12 he was 70 and I was 12 so and and you know I was I was I was in middle school and yet I was sort of a special student at the University but it was a connection that I would see him at the end of the day on Fridays at the end of the end of the day and of his day after he taught all his college students and it was open-ended so we'd sometimes be two three hours lessons where we would just I play for he would play I mean he the most beautiful sound of any any violence to this day that I've heard suit us the sweetest Stradivarius that he had but also just his very old-fashioned playing from another and that's what I have in my year from him but we would play he would we would he'd go into his library and take out string quartets and we'd read through things it was very open kind of open-ended there was not it was not structured he was never mean ever never kind of got on me everything he did was through positive encouragement and and I think that that war worked for me it certainly kept me interested and I wanted to please him at what point did you realize that your career was starting to take off did you feel emotionally ready for your early successes you know the career the word career I just I never I never thought in terms of a career I started getting paid at some point a lot the woman and I was able to to buy my first sports car when I turned 16 I bought it myself you know with my own money because I'd been getting paid a little bit here and there from at that point competitions the few that I did and then a few concerts I would so and then that sort of sort of snowballed eventually into a career but I frankly I never thought in those terms I still don't think of music as a career it's just because it's so much more than that it's it's a way of living it's a way of it's all encompassing and so kind of happen gradually I did was not an overnight thing for I didn't win a international competition suddenly thrust on the scene I just Gingold might my teacher to just encourage me to play as much as I could little concerts here and there nothing was too unimportant to play up to to play in front of people for and and and and I just gained experience and and and and things sort of evolved into into what my concert career today but there was a story I believe at your Philadelphia Orchestra debut at 14 I believe that this occasion the story goes that your shoulder rest fell to the ground and at some point cool as a cucumber before the cadenza he picked it up and then not missing a note you continued were you always that comfortable onstage well there's two aspects first there's a story what actually happened was that I had this shoulder rest that would that was held together by a rubber band and it came off just before the cadenza and actually I might have been cool cool as a cucumber but when I was stretching it to put it back on my violin I actually accidentally let go of it and it hit the principal violist in the head so did the rubberband went and shot it and and I played the cadenza without a shoulder arrest and they the Philadelphia Orchestra probably laughing all the way through they passed this thing around up to the cod semester and at the end of the first movement they gave it to me and I put it back on so that was that was that was my debut with Philadelphia Orchestra I didn't take his eye out but but it could have been disastrous but as far as feeling comfortable on stage yeah I uh it's funny because I mentioned that I was a shy kid in a lot of ways and quite shy as a kid I've sort of grown up grown out of that but not on stage I was never shy on stage I just I guess this is a common story you hear from from actors who you know you think seems so outgoing and they they claim that they're very shy people in a way music is like acting you can kind of hop you can become something else and and for a shy person like myself I felt very comfortable with when I was playing music and getting up on stage I know where else was I so comfortable if you feel like you had space for yourself to take artistic risks in the beginning did you fear certain failure or were you just doing your own thing and not worried about the result you know I in a way I think I was kind of fearless a little but if you can be a little bit fearless it's it's you know probably that's partially the encouragement of my and the way I was brought up with my teachers I was not it was I was always encouraged to take risks and Gingold would would smile when I would try something new and and I'd never felt like I was controlled you got to do it this way got it and I was he allowed me as a teacher which is I think very important he allowed me to be myself and to come up with answers by myself he would pose the questions I think like all great teachers do you know it's posing the right questions for you to figure out on your own rather than telling you played this way played this way no take time here put your finger here use this fingering I mean there were teachers other teachers that would that I were was around at summer camps and things that would basically hand out to all their students their fingerings for a piece and they would and now all the students would diligently copy every little number so that everybody would play it the same way and Gingold was never like that he would save because how you were you how you choose to play you know which fingering you use on your instrument that reflects how you feel about the piece and if you do it exactly like everyone else that's sort of locking you into a certain way of thinking he guided me of course and sometimes would say are you sure you want to do that and sometimes he said love that I bought I totally buy that you know and and it kind of instilled a confidence in myself that I could come up with the answers and maybe that's why I felt sort of the the freedom to take risks and to this day I feel like that I enjoy the feeling of being onstage and taking risks doing something different even just going and trying something new in the middle of you know with in front of an audience and I think that's it's important I think in performance that the audience doesn't feel like you've they're witnessing something that this person has spent zillion hours practicing that it should feel almost like improvisational and even if you have practice a million hours and know exactly what you want to do it should seem like you're telling the story for the first time both of your parents were psychologists did a certain awareness of psychology affect you or relationship with the stage I you know I don't know about my own because my parents were both in the field of psychology and and I don't know if we that trained me for the the amount of psychology that one does need to understand in our business and the music business psychology is very important in a lot of ways I think understanding other people that you're working with and but also oneself I don't know if it my whether about my parents but certainly I'm still ongoing trying to understand myself my and and the psychology of how my brain works because when you're when you're on stage and you're trying to do something you're you're you're basically trying to master how your brain works in so many ways nerves for instance you know what's one day you play something perfectly ten times in a row and then and all of a sudden stage suddenly you're getting a mental block that doesn't you can't remember something or it doesn't work with it at that point you have to really understand your own brain how do how do you work around that how do you how do you change it up out of you all these things I feel like I'm still trying to figure out how my brain works in that way it was Michael Jordan who actually said that he succeeded precisely because he failed so many times were there certain setbacks along the way that in fact made you stronger um certainly I mean there were um you know I guess you know I didn't I don't dwell on setbacks and really I mean I think there were certain at times I didn't I was sort of a perfectionist like I didn't enjoy obviously not playing well you know so and even when people the audience's would clap a lot and I'd feel like I didn't quite do it right I would I would I would be a little bit I would be hard on myself but that kind of made me go to the practice room and tried to get better I did have to learn not to dwell on things when I made a mistake for instance when I was very young I would I would have had to make a mistake I would I would cringe and grimace in front you know and and get down to myself and and even when people most people wouldn't even know that I made a mistake you know and it would it would and I learned I learned that that you have to move on and you have to let it go you make a mistake and let it go but I mean you know I've entered competitions when I was younger where I didn't win lost and and and and I learned from that from those experiences you did a lot of sports as a young man do you still keep up with sports and how important is it to your musical life hmm I love sports now it's probably spend more time sitting on the couch watching NFL football than I do getting out there and playing sports but I used to play a lot as a kid the tennis and basketball growing up in Indiana loved basketball and went to all the Indiana University basketball games Bobby Knight the coach there then my dad took me to I loved loved sports and actually there are a lot of a lot of parallels I think it's sports and playing an instrument you know the the focus the the psychology of you know of you know of mastering something for instance like you know shooting baskets and the way Michael Jordan I would often and others other great athletes would will often talk about being in the zone or visualizing something before it happens you know like Michael Jordan Armand wood could once he started the process of shooting you could almost like close his eyes and and shoot and it would just it would it would go in because he would see it going in before he even shot it and and there's I think with playing playing the violin particularly difficult passages often I will already in my head imagine what it's going to sound like imagine sliding into a really difficult note and already hear it in my head before it's happened and that's the psychological things that when you do that it's amazing how how much that helps you know and that sounds almost like a Zen process it how much of being on stage in fact can be an act of meditation yeah well it certainly is a form of a form of that you're getting into a very focused state you're you're eliminating I guess like meditation where you're getting rid of a lot of things out of getting rid of things in your brain to to make it clear and pure with when you're on stage you're doing a similar thing I think you're you're you're I don't notice usually when you know after a concert people come back as did you hear that guy coughing interviewer that does that distracting person in the second rows like I blacked that out and and you get very very very focused one of I mean for me one of the my traits as a as a person and sometimes annoyingly to my family and friends is that I when I would start when I start to think about something I completely zone out so sometimes I'll be pondering something people will be waving their hands in front of in front of my facing hello anyone in there you know and that's and and that's I think that's one of in a way that's also a gift I feel I have that I can completely focus on what I'm doing and block everything else out speaking of music as a business what do you tell young musicians who are my colleagues included who might be worried that in addition to major talent a big career requires a lot of financial backing for the education and then later for PR and advertising is there hope for musicians with limited means well certainly there's there's yeah I when I talk to young musician about being being a musician I usually don't talk about PR and about the cost of the agents and things like that it I think those things are so our second there I think the most important thing is knowing what knowing what you want to do is it a passion is it something that you that that that makes your life meaningful I think you know life is very short and and we we don't get to do it over and so I always create people to follow their their dreams and I tend to focus on that more than being practical because sure there are practicalities but I think when you really believe in something if you think music is you is your life it's got to be your life I think you're going to find a way to make it happen and and not to focus on big career that hopefully will happen for whoever wants it to happen but it's not really about that it's about getting to do what you love and whether that's in music there are many ways to make that happen you can teach you can work with young children which can be very satisfying you can play chamber murmurs you can play solo concerts you can try to be the center of the stage or you can try to be the person that's important but in a more supporting role in and there are many ways to create a career but and there there are also people out there that want to help and you have to look for those people my parents found people like that for me they couldn't afford my when I was 11 10 years old I found a 3/4 size violin here in New York I didn't live here but we came to New York the shock front say the legendary violin dealer at the time had this 3/4 size violin for $4,000 which was a lot of money for my parents they couldn't have they couldn't afford it or they could have looking back I'm kind of annoyed that they did they didn't just buy it for me but but they thought that was you know so out of out of reach so but they found somebody that that that ended up buying it for me and helping me out for me to use and he and he ended up being a kind of a patron and then later on in life I had other instruments that were lent to me in people that were that supported me because they enjoyed being behind the scenes and helping young musicians and there so there are ways to get support financially and but the the first thing is just to know that that's what you want to do if a kid comes to me and says I want to have a big solo career that's kind of not the way to enter into it you have to it has to be a calling just to play music first you're not the owner of the famous who Berman Strad yes and that is a very storied instrument that was stolen twice and recovered twice before you before you bought it but what I actually wonder is is it equally important to have a great bow for your sound well the bow is I mean it's a huge part of the equation having a great bow they don't come you don't buy them together live it's both sold separately and they were made this violin was made in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari in Italy in Cremona Italy this bow was made in the very early 19th century in in France by the sort of Stradivari of bow makers you might say Francois tort tort and he his he kind of sort of reinvented the bow which is remarkable because I mean the bow bows used to be shaped more like a the Baroque bows were shaped in a different way more like a like a bow a bow and arrow and as music evolved both started to evolve with them and and tort was one of the innovators of the bow which is remarkable because because he got it so right that that people today it's the most sought-after bows I mean and the most valuable and this is this is it completely changes the sound how it works with the instrument and the overtones and the way the flexibility and the way the bow is your life is for a singer this bow is your breath what you do it that is the nuance everything you do with your sound musically it all comes from this and so it's very important I think what most people don't realize is that in some cases the bow might be more expensive than a given instrument it's possible I mean in this case this bow is certainly well it's worth more than my house in Indiana and and this violin is worth more than my house in New York City but it's yeah they're very can be very very valuable and very expensive but so worth it for a concert artist when I found this boat just I just found this about six months ago this particular one I fell in love with it and and it could make sounds and do things that I hadn't been able to do with it with my previous bows and you'd feel that your artistry has evolved with your changing instruments and bows absolutely the as you say it each instrument each system provides certain opportunities and colors that you can get out of music I use the word colors a lot in music as we do and and so when I got this violin in 2001 it opened up a whole other world of expression and and I realized I could do things play things and different strings that on my old violin it just would wouldn't sound and all of a sudden it opens up new colors and which then gives you new opportunities with with the pieces you're playing to to make music in a different way and interpret it in a different way so so certainly the instrument I mean it makes a big difference what's your relationship to your audience do you have a certain awareness of your audience when you're playing or are you playing more for yourself it says it's that's a question is is something I've thought about because it's not an easy answer to say which am i aware of the audience because on one level I'm in my own world when you play music but but yet the audience is important so it's it's often you know because I often the idea of audience musicians often you talk in terms of the metaphor of communication with the audience you're communicating with the audience and that's there's there's some truth to that but I also think that that it only goes so far because it's not there is a certain amount of communication I think the best way to think of it is thinking of an actor on stage in a play you know when you're seeing a great actor do Shakespeare is he communicating with you in the audience do you want him to communicate with you in the audit you don't really want want him to to suddenly turn to the audience and then unless it's called for you know you know house of cards style where a third turns of toxic it's a little bit disconcerting so what is it what kind of communication is going on between an actor because when you watch you you want to be completely drawn in to the story that's being told on stage as an audience member and the same thing is with music your instead of a play it's it's you know a Beethoven sonata is it's Beethoven's created this incredible world that that the artists are taking you into and drawing you into and I see the the role of artist is bringing people in rather than throwing something out at them and I think that that simple difference is a big difference and and my teacher Gingold also his way of playing he was very intimate when you heard in play you always you felt like you were being drawn in and for him playing as loudly as possible and projecting projecting was not always his focus it was more about nuance and bringing people in and that's that's sort of the way I'd like to think of music do you think that there's an audience disconnect in terms of perception of a performer visually and through sound for example with heifetz there are many musical colleagues of mine who perceive him to be a cold musician but for me if you look at a photo of Heifetz you see an elegant austere man if you close your eyes you hear passion and warmth do you think that this disconnect could account for some of the divides on the Heifetz legacy well first of all - did pretty well in his career see he didn't suffer he didn't really suffer from too much I mean except for nasty comments you might see on YouTube about some of it as video today which is a whole other subject which I could I could start a rant on but it is interesting because yeah I high pitch was one of my idols and and I and and I I see nothing cold about hyphens just he was so efficient in the way in the way he played the instrument I mean he there was no unnecessary movements and and and and not even put myself in the same sentence as heifetz but I will just only to say that I'm such I'm so not like that I've been accused I've been accused of moving around too much and and I accuse myself of doing that too much as well when I look at videos like myself I think can't I just kind of just you know be more efficient in the way but from in the way I play but for me for me to stifle that it ends up stifling my music making life it's didn't I mean when he played it was it was he was he was very like stone-faced and and but yet what comes out is is just fiery passion and and intensity and credible intensity so one of the things I work on today though is trying to see if I can still have all my energy and passion without moving around too much I work on that all the time you're on the road almost I could we say most of the year how do you deal with the stresses of travel particularly with jetlag you've just come back now from Europe I just yesterday got back from Europe I was up at 4 a.m. this morning because of jetlag you know it is a very stressful schedule I think I'm playing 140 or 150 concerts this year yeah which is like I don't know why I keep doing this to myself but I somehow I've been able to do it without feeling burned out yet because I still enjoy it and still look forward to trips I don't to going on the next trip so but it's it's that kind of schedules not for everyone and you want it's it's a lot of stress a lot of pressure and some of the more stressful things are the traveling aspects the going to airport since the security and the just of that stuff take does take a big toll you know adversely affect your performance well sure I mean your your how rested you feel and how your peace of mind certainly affects how you you play so one wants to build in enough time to it's always a it's always hard to find the right balance because I I would probably be better off arriving three days before every concert and just having time to rest but then I would have no time at home ever so I found myself in situations where I arrived in Europe and have to play the concert the same night and it's usually when come concert time getting up on stage I I forget about everything I forget about my if I have a headache or say I played with 104 temperature with food poisoning I'm good i but once I start playing I kind of get about it but it's a stressful stressful life but I actually enjoy the stress I enjoy the the intensity and the of having that distress and then the release of the when you when it's over that feeling it's so sort of euphoric when you can get through it and then and and be done and have the the applause and the satisfaction and then you can go relax and have a nice meal and a beer after a concert this is nothing like you've talked about a certain thirst for adrenaline where does that come from and how does that pan out in your life it seems that many artists in particular self-described as addictive personalities perhaps that could be a function of passion I think yeah I mean there's they're closely tied I think passion compulsion addiction those are things are all very closely tied historically violinists have been gamblers the many Paganini vinyasa key they I think there are stories of each of them losing violins through gambling and yes it's not not not always good and that runs in my family too my mother my sisters and I we all we all have the the gambling bug which I which games the video games is gambling even candy crush I've decided I decided is basically a form of gambling it appeals to the gambling part of people who get addicted to that are sort of gamblers in a way but it is tight it is it is tied together and I think when I think myself why I like the adrenaline in all aspects of my life with this competitive sports and or gambling or playing maybe it's actually caused by the fact that I have been performing so much from all my life and that that gives you it's like a drug you know getting up a stage and being nervous and and performing risking it's basically it's a risk it's not no one's gonna die from it but it's not but it's it is a risk you're baring your soul your your your risking and that's that's um it's a huge rush and and I think when you get that rush you tend to want to get that a lot you know thank good I never never did drugs never started that that would not be good tell us about your upcoming HBO special what's the idea behind it well I I had a lot of fun filming this this episode for HBO of their series masterclass series they came to me asking if I'd participate and various artists and actors and people they've worked with before for the for the for this series they've given master classes or done some form of working with young people and we came up with a format of I figured instead of giving a dry master class I thought it'd be fun to actually create performance and a sort of workshop with some young musicians and and so they we chose nine musicians from the young arts program in Miami and these are kids from around the country and we I worked with them for a week we performed right in the space in my house for an audience we went to London they put they observed my recording sessions of them for my bath album which is just coming out now and and we played bath together and Mendelssohn octet and they filmed the whole thing and and came up this little half hour documentary and and it was a blast at what point did working with young musicians young children become important to you you also have your education through music initiative well I love kids I have three of my own and I love I love just meeting kids in in in in concerts when I play concerts I always go into the lobby and meet young kids who are up-and-coming and and I nothing makes me happier than a young kid that says I started violin because because of you or you just inspired me to practice you know I just love that and a lot of children I do and people often notice that there are a lot of kids at my concerts and maybe it's because I've developed a reputation for going out and meeting them because I love that and so parents bring them to my concerts I think every kid in this country should be playing music having it in theirs first of all on their school but and also their parents what it does for a young child I mean it affects their lives in so many ways it's one of the things I'm I work with education through music it's an organization that I am closely working with that their goal is to get is to is installing music programs in inner-city schools that have no music at all and and I've worked with them here with their schools and the Bronx and in Manhattan and and and Manhattan the Bronx and now around the country and the difference it makes in these kids lives there their scores and in academics go way up their self-esteem goes up it's so rewarding to see that happen so I I would like to do even more so you were four years old when you chose the violin why violin as opposed to another instrument oh well I you know I don't even remember choosing the violin I think it was my father's favorite instrument he was a wannabe violence he always regretted not doing it he even had a violent in the house that even though he would never had a lesson he just loved the instrument so I think he chose it but it and it was the right one for me because I grew up with the piano in my house everyone played the piano I didn't have an interest I just violin was it for me tell us about your Bach album why come to Bach concerto at this point in your career well you know Bacchus is in some ways I just about his being the greatest of them all and some at every point of my life from the very beginning Bach has been there for me an important part of my life my very first orchestral concert when I was seven years old was playing the Bach double with the Bloomington Symphony with a young person and and my very first recital where Joseph Gingold heard me for the first time in concert I was playing a Bach partita and for a violinist the the Baskin charity and the and the parties and I was in parties it's just it's them it's a huge part of the repertory yet I've never recorded box before partially because my views on Bach of oh and how it should be played is always changing and so and and I never felt like I was ready to do and I still don't feel ready for the Baath Party distance and and sonatas someday I hope to do that but but I would felt ready to do a bath album and so I recorded these concerto and a new version of the box check own with with that's a company version with my orchestra the Academy of sigmar in the fields using Mendelssohn's accompaniment there's it so be something a little new a new take on the Box Chacon so it's it's it's an album that I have been looking forward to doing for a long time and I'm very happy I finally did it you've had a lot of experience with jazz and with popular music could that in any way have an impact on your work with the standard repertoire for example even with Bach oh absolutely I mean there's a lot there's there's a lot of connections with between jazz and Bob I mean bath was one of the great improvisers and and and and Baroque music and jazz have a lot in common the way you know the way the harpsichord player interprets his par which is not written written on it so it's like like being a jazz pianist you have to figure out from the from the harmonies and improvise and and so it's it's there's a lot of connections I find my work with bluegrass players jazz players it's definitely affects the way I approach music in general it it shows it's shown me the art of improvisation on a level that I that I hadn't gotten just working with classical musicians and opened my my my-y ears too whole other way of thinking about music and I think that certainly it affects the way I play classical music because it's even classical music where everything is basically there's a you know which notes you're going to play there's so much room for improvisation and feeling improvised and sounding improvised it should sound like that and so I've learned so much from other types of musicians you seem to have limitless energy with your diverse projects for my musical colleagues who are trying to learn how to pace themselves how do you decide when too much is too much when you decide when you should turn down the project I haven't turned down anything yet but I've got something I'm working you know it's it's yeah I mean I'm joking of course but I tend to want to try everything because so often I've almost turned down things and then I did them and I think oh my god thank goodness I did it because I I met this interesting musician through it and it turned into something else and my approach to life in general is like you know what's going to happen if you turn something down because you know because but you don't always know what will happen if you accept it and I've made some mistakes but and done things that maybe I shouldn't have done but it's so yeah but at this point in my life I'm getting I am so I have the luxury of having a lot of opportunities and so turning down figure out what to turn down is something I have to do and it's not always easy in the end what is this all about being a musician in today's world well for the difficult question because you know where does what role does music play and I think it plays a very important art and music plays a very important role in in this world I think it's I think music is beauty and music is tells us about life in a way that nothing else can and I think that for me it it makes me feel alive just personally in a way that I just I can't imagine life without music and the communication with audiences and what audiences get from from music is something very very special and so I I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world that the music found me at a young age and that I can actually make this a way of life thank you very much mr. bell it was a pleasure to have you on thank you so nice talking with you thank you thanks for coming to my house I wish I did all interviews of my house you

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Keywords: Joshua Bell (Musical Artist), zsolt bognar, living the classical life, liz foley, jutta ittner, peter hobbs, Classical Music (Musical Genre), Violin (Musical Instrument), interview

Id: 8QRUUxN42Jo

Length: 44min 9sec (2649 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 17 2014