Oh, my goodness!  Joshua Bell is performing at the Long Center in Austin October 6.  I’m going to this.  Can you believe it?  

“The Long Center and KMFA present an evening with Joshua Bell accompanied by pianist Sam Haywood, Saturday, October 6 in Dell Hall.

With a career spanning more than 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and conductor, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 CDs garnering Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone and Echo Klassik awards and is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize. Named the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2011, he is the only person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958.

Bell frequently plays with orchestras and at festivals world-wide, include appearances at Bravo! Vail Festival, Edinburgh Festival, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with BBC Proms in London, as well as virtually every major city across the globe. Apart from experimenting with music in technology & VR and constantly collaborating with orchestras and other projects, Bell currently serves as a senior lecturer at the Jacobs School of Music, his alma mater at Indiana University which has also honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award. He has been named an “Indiana Living Legend: and is the recipient of the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award.

Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin and uses a late 18th century French bow by François Tourte.”

I’ll be in Austin that week, having promised the Funny Grandson that I would give him an “Early Birthday Party” again this year.  He loved having “two birthdays” and I loved doing it.  Will and I decorated the condo with all sorts of birthday stuff from the Dollar Store, plus the FG spent the night with us in South Austin and was able to stroll down the street to the local cafe for pancakes.  

Thank goodness it is so easy to make a seven year old happy.

And, speaking of happy, this woman is over the moon.  Joshua Bell!!  In person!!!