Josef Gingold was born on 28 October, 1909. In celebration of the birth of a universally beloved and respected pedagogue, here is an interview I did with Joshua Bell, one of his most famous students, for The Strad Violin Heroes special edition. He goes on to discuss another violin hero, Jascha Heifetz ‘For me the most direct influence and by far the greatest hero was my teacher Josef Gingold. He was one of the most sincere and beautiful music makers that I’ve ever heard. His

I'm currently researching an article for Sinfini Music about violin stars who branch out into other styles, and came across this wonderful footage of a concert at the Verbier Festival, which I was actually lucky enough to go to back in 2007. Joshua Bell teamed up with sitar player Anoushkar Shankar, and the results were mesmerising. Maybe the inflections and language aren't quite how someone born in the tradition might speak them, but you can't deny Bell's commitment to the m