By: Cathalena E. Burch
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Sometime in the next year, Joshua Bell hopes to learn to salsa dance.

He also wants to learn Spanish. Finish renovating his new New York City apartment. Compose. Conduct. Shoot the moon.

His ambitions are bigger than he is, and his life demands more hours than there are in a day.

Which brings the violinist to his No. 1 priority for 2005: Finding time for Joshua Bell.

"Over the last few years, it's kind of gotten out of hand," he explained during a phone interview from home a week before Christmas. "I love to perform and I love to play, but my tendency is to try to fit everything in and do everything and play too much. So I'm trying to make my life a little easier because I tend to make it as complicated and busy as possible."

Almost 25 years after he blipped the radar and became the classical music coverboy, Bell, 37, still admits to flashes of insecurity. If he turns down an engagement, will he no longer be in demand? he mused aloud.

"The problem is one appreciates being asked to play," he said. "I want to play everywhere. It's very hard to say 'no' and feel assured that one will always be in demand. The problem is that I just love to play. So I think, 'Why not.' But I want to leave a little more time to relax and do some of the things I want to do, like learn Spanish and learn to salsa dance."

Those who have followed the world-class violinist since he made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at 14 probably can't picture the handsome violinist doing the cha-cha.

Then again, those same people probably rubbed their eyes in disbelief when they saw Bell grace the cover of Edgar Meyer's 1999 bluegrass album, "Short Trip Home."

"It's not that I felt the need to take a break," Bell explained of the project, one of his several departures from classical music over the years. "I could feel very happy doing Brahms and Beethoven and Tchaikovsky for the rest of my life. There's plenty to do in the classical field. But it was a challenge. These are incredible musicians, and it stretched me."

Bell considers those outside projects - including the movie soundtracks for "The Red Violin" in 1998 and "Iris" in 2001 - as detours in the musical journey that he began as a child in his native Indiana. It's a journey whose path is continually evolving and whose final destination is anyone's guess.

"It feels like following a path; you don't know where it's going to go, the twists and turns," Bell said. "I've sort of followed this path that presented itself. But I never knew really what to expect."

On Wednesday, his path turns to Tucson for a concert with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

It is his first concert here in years, dating back to the days when he was starting out.

Bell was on the verge of adulthood when he began touring the globe as a soloist. He was 18, 19 years old, he recalled - only a few years out from his Philadelphia debut when the boy violinist commanded the stage like a man.

He made an impression for his virtuosity and personality that he has reinforced in every performance since.

By the time Bell graduated from Indiana University at 22, he was gracing magazine covers and was a regular guest on TV shows that included "The Tonight Show."

Today, Bell is considered perhaps America's pre-eminent violinist and ranks among the top violinists worldwide. His concert calendar is booked year-round. He ended his 2004 season two weeks before Christmas and starts 2005 five days into the new year with his concert here - the final time he will play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto for a live audience before recording it at the end of January with the Berlin Philharmonic.

"I think it's one of the great pieces and it's probably one of the most exciting of the violin concertos," Bell said of the piece, which he immersed himself in throughout 2004.

"The thing about Tchaikovsky is that it's very passionate, very romantic and big. But it also has a side that's often neglected, a very elegant and intimate side. And that's the way I think about this piece," he nearly gushed. "I think of the piece in little bit more of an intimate way. It's not always bombastic and passionate. I think of Tchaikovsky as being very elegant, a dance."

Once he records the concerto, Bell will move on to other repertoire. Perhaps he'll dabble in works for string quartets or intimate chamber music that he loves but rarely gets to play. He'll also work on the follow-up to his current album, "Romancing of the Violin."

At some point between now and this time next year, he will look around and see where he is. If all has gone as planned, Bell will have set aside the time and learned to dance, even if he never does it outside his New York penthouse apartment.

"I want to leave a little more time to relax and do some of the things I want to do, like learn Spanish and learn to salsa dance," Bell quietly declared. "My biggest problem is just finding time to do everything I want."
Published: 12.30.2004