The Violin Odyssey of an All

Mr. Bell has been dogged by a counterstereotype of his own: the all-American boy. And that is hard to get around even now that he has become a full-fledged international artist of the first rank. He lives unostentatiously with his girlfriend of six years a few blocks south of the Empire State Building, which dominates the view from their windows. He chose the area, like the earlier one he lived in, farther downtown, partly to avoid the music crowd. He plays tennis or golf whenever he can.

His handlers try to spice up his image a bit, pointing out that he likes to hop to Atlantic City for bouts of gambling. And genuine temperament is obvious in his performances. Yet he comes across in conversation as basically just a really nice guy.

Perhaps what needs revising is not so much the image of Mr. Bell as the popular image of Indiana, tied as it is to auto racing and basketball. As it happens, Mr. Bell could hardly have been born in a more propitious spot in 1967 than Bloomington, the home of Indiana University, with its vast and excellent school of music. Indeed, those so inclined might see the hand of fate at work. Mr. Bell's parents had just moved there, his father having accepted a position in the university's psychology department.

''My parents loved music, but they moved there not even knowing that there was a music school,'' Mr. Bell said. ''They stumbled on it, really. So I grew up in a nice environment, going to concerts, going to a normal school, playing sports. As a kid, it was a good place to be.''

But this kid also took up the violin at 5, and fate, if such it was, had seen to that eventuality as well, when Josef Gingold resigned as concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1960 to teach at Indiana University. Gingold, who was born in Brest-Litovsk in 1909, when that Byelorussian city was part of Russia, and died in 1995, was a brilliant, kindly and beloved teacher. He was also active in nurturing a larger violin culture in Indiana, which eventually included the prestigious International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

Mr. Bell had no need of that competition. In 1980, at 12, he started studying with Gingold. At 14, he won the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors Competition and made his orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. While already involved in courses at the university, he finished high school in three years. His career simply took on a life of its own.