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Who

The violin phenom and onetime child prodigy has become a bona fide classical music hottie.

Backstory

The son of two psychologists—his father was a sex researcher who worked with Alfred Kinsey—Bell first picked up a violin at age five. By 12, he was studying at Indiana University under Russian concertmaster Josef Gingold; two years later, Bell earned notice as the Next Big Thing in American strings with a highly acclaimed debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was Bell's 1985 performance at Carnegie Hall that netted him his first recording contract with London Records (he'd later move to Sony Classical), and his first album came out when he was just 18. While he'd been endlessly praised in classical circles for years, wider public recognition only arrived in 1998, when he performed the solo on John Corigliano's Oscar-winning soundtrack for The Red Violin. Since that initial burst of mainstream exposure, Bell has taken a different path than many classically-trained violinists, collaborating outside the genre with pop performers such as Josh Groban, Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea and James Taylor; the highly photogenic Bell also appeared as himself in Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep. Recent years have seen him branch out somewhat: Bell took up the conducting baton for the first time in 2007.

Of note

Working outside the classical music fold has earned him some sniping from traditionalists, but Bell has held his ground. "I was always so worried what the core classic people are going to think if I do this. After a while it was like, why do I care so much? If it sounds like fun to do a duet with James Taylor, why would I worry what people think?" Not all classical music aficionados are opposed to the experimentation, though, given that Bell has helped introduce the violin to a new generation of fans via his many albums, including 2003's Romance of the Violin (over 5 million copies sold) and 2006's Voice of the Violin. And although some find his collaborations hokey, he seems to have largely maintained his downtown cred. Interview once gushed, "His music does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live."

Trophy case

Bell won three Grammys in 2004 and was named Billboard's "Classical Artist of the Year." In 2007, he was awarded the coveted Avery Fisher prize at Lincoln Center.

For the record

Bell plays a rare Stradivarius violin from 1713 called the Gibson ex Huberman. It cost him around $4 million.

Personal

It's long been rumored that Bell is gay, but he's also been linked to a handful of actresses over the years, including Kristin Chenoweth and Natalie Portman. In 2007 he had a "planned" baby, Josef, with an ex-girlfriend from almost a decade ago, the violinist Lisa Matricardi, an arrangement he concedes is unusual but shrugs off: "In this day and age there are so many different kinds of families." He lives in a full-floor penthouse on East 22nd Street. You can occasionally find him zipping around town in his Porsche 911.

True story

In 2007, the Washington Post put Bell and his $4 million Stradivarius in a Washington D.C. subway station dressed in a t-shirt and baseball hat to see if anyone would notice the world-class performer in their midst. Over the course of several hours, just seven people—out of more than 1,000 who passed—stopped to look. Only one person recognized him.