On a freezing Friday morning in January 2007, a man in a Washington Nationals cap played a multi-million-dollar Stradivarius at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station in Washington, D.C. Nearly 1,100 commuters passed, seven stopped, and he collected about 32 dollars. The busker was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest living violinists. This deep dive traces his life from a four-year-old plucking rubber bands stretched across dresser drawers in Bloomington, Indiana, to Grammy-winning soloist, music director, and cultural ambassador.

We look at how his parents, a therapist and a Kinsey Institute psychologist, protected a normal childhood of video games, bowling, and nationally ranked tennis while enlisting the legendary teacher Joseph Gingold, and why he stayed at Bloomington High School North and Indiana University rather than a conservatory. We then ...