He’s witty, smart, he loves sports and he’s really into technology. He’s just the Grammy Award-winning violin virtuoso Joshua Bell\nNow Bell will take his talents closer to his hometown of Bloomington.\nHe will return to IU, his alma mater, in the fall of 2008 to teach at the Jacobs School of Music.\nAlexander Kerr, a longtime friend of Bell’s and a violinist and the Linda and Jack Gill Chair in Music at the Jacobs School, said Bell is always entertaining.\n“He has a very huge and curious mind, which is really great to be around,” Kerr said. “He’s very funny, fun to be around. We have played together so many times.”\nBell first began to study violin at the age of eight with Mimi Zweig, IU’s director of Summer String Academy for students. Zweig said she did not expect Bell to go where he has gone.\n“Whenever someone works with kids, we can never know exactly where they will go and what their potential is,” she said. “We just give them the tools and if they got it in them they will do it. He definitely had lots of potential (as a kid).”\nZweig said that Bell will be on campus one week each semester, where he will work with students, coaching and playing with them.\nAnd now as Bell prepares to come to IU in the future, Zweig and Kerr could only find one standout emotion to describe Bell’s decision to come to IU: excitement.\n“We’re very excited,” Zweig said. “I know my students are, and I have had responses from people around the world.”\nKerr’s sentiments echoed Zweig’s.\n“Wow, I mean, the school is so excited. To have someone of this magnitude of his is incredible,” Kerr said. “Everyone is just very excited.”\nWhen Bell was 12, Zweig said he began to study with Josef Gingold, a renowned violinist who taught at the Jacobs School for more than 30 years until his death in 1995. \nBell first came to national attention at age 14 when he made his highly acclaimed orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti, according to a press release.\nKerr, who has known Bell since the 1990s, said that growing up and witnessing Bell’s career flourish will inspire everyone who studies under him. \n“He is going to inspire the kids,” Kerr said. “He is one of the greatest performers around, and to have him accessible to the student is amazing.”\nKerr said that Bell will be able to speak of his experiences and of his life - which is different than the experiences that Kerr and other faculty members can share with students.\n“What is really great is that he is not far removed from age,” Kerr said. “He’s 40, but a young 40.”\nHe said that the inspiration he gives while working alongside the students will teach them and show them how Bell feels the music and how he thinks.\n“His whole life is devoted to understanding the music and going more in-depth,” Zweig said. \nAfter performing for the majority of his life, Bell will be embarking on a new endeavor of teaching. \n“When one reaches a certain age, one has a feeling that they want to give back some of what they have learned,” Zweig said.\nAnd the Jacobs School couldn’t be happier to hear of Bell’s future impending arrival.\n“He is just an extraordinary violinist and he plays with such expressiveness - always exploring the outer limits and never afraid to take a chance and express himself to the fullest,” Zweig said. “I think it’s just very exciting ... for him to make the Jacobs School his home for his teaching bases.”\nKerr said that because Bell’s career flourished at an early age, and Kerr experienced something similar, the bond between the two was strong.\n“That is the whole point of music,” Kerr said. “Connection and communication.”
