Joshua Bell recalls the lessons of his greatest mentor, Josef Gingold

Note: Due to illness, the Joshua Bell/Daniel Trifonov recital has been postponed. The rescheduled date is March 29. Tickets for March 2 will be honored then. For more information, contact the box office.

Violin virtuoso Joshua Bell credits a former mentor, the famed Josef Gingold, for his greatest life lesson.

Born in Bloomington, the home of Indiana University and its acclaimed music school, Bell took advantage of the many opportunities afforded by life in a college town. On the I.U.-Bloomington faculty was the Russian-born Gingold (1909-1995), the onetime concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, under the great George Szell, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Gingold also was a member of the first violin section of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, created especially for legendary maestro Arturo Toscanini.

In a recent interview with the Strad magazine, Bell recalled his mentor’s lifelong influence. “I feel so lucky to have grown up just down the road from the legendary Josef Gingold,” said the violinist, who will join pianist Daniil Trifonov for a Symphony Center Presents Chamber Music concert March 2. “When he took me on as a 12-year-old, I’d never know quite what to expect during our violin lessons.

“Besides offering practical and musical advice, and demonstrating his ‘old-world’ sense of sound and style on his Stradivari, he would also mesmerize me with stories of his encounters with [Belgian composer-virtuoso Eugène] Ysaÿe, Toscanini and [Austrian composer-virtuoso Fritz] Kreisler. Sometimes he’d take out a Beethoven string quartet for me to sightread while he filled in the other three parts by memory, or he’d take me down the hall to meet [pianist] Menahem Pressler or [cellist] János Starker and get their perspective on a particular musical idea.”

Revered as a pedagogue, Gingold also was known for instilling broader values of musicianship in his students. “It was Gingold who made me realize that music could be a way of life and a profound means of expression,” Bell said. “He was a master at sniffing out anything that hinted of artifice. He sought honesty in music-making, asking me questions but not spoon-feeding me answers. He gave me the tools to think for myself, which is the greatest thing a teacher can give.”

Gingold was never possessive of his students, Bell recalled, “and encouraged us to play for other teachers. Between the ages of 11 and 18, I learned from a variety of masters at Aspen, Meadowmount and Marlboro festivals, in addition to a memorable course with [Polish virtuoso] Henryk Szeryng in Geneva. ‘You can learn from everyone,’ Gingold said. I have kept this with me throughout my career. Education never stops.”