Bella Ward

Bella chose to start learning the violin at the age of six, and hasn't put it down since. Her early experiences fiddling with her dad, singing in her mom's musical theater classes, and writing songs with her siblings cultivated a joyous approach to music at a young age and led her to pursue it as a career.

In 2014, Bella was accepted into the University of North Carolina School of the Arts high school program to study violin with Kevin Lawrence. She continued at UNCSA for her undergraduate studies, serving within concertmaster and associate concertmaster roles with the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra and working with conductors such as Xian Zhang, Steven White, Mark Gibson, and Larry Rachleff.

Bella recently completed her Master's degree in Violin Performance and a certificate in Music Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University in May of 2024, studying with Dr. Katherine McLin. At ASU, Bella served in principal roles in the ASU Symphony and taught private violin lessons to undergraduate students as Dr. McLin's TA.

As a soloist and chamber musician Bella has performed in masterclasses for Soovin Kim, Nicholas DiEugenio, Becca Stevens, Philip Setzer, and Wu Han and David Finckel of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Over the summers, Bella has attended the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony Music Institute, and the Luby Violin Symposium.

When she is not playing classical music, Bella writes original songs with her band, Spun Diamonds, who just released a new album titled “A Watcher Floating”. The band just completed work on their second album, with plans to release the music in the summer of 2024. Also an enthusiastic leader in the arts, Bella served as an ArtistCorps member within the community engagement department at UNCSA. In this role she taught violin lessons, led orchestra sectionals, and created STEAM based lesson plans to teach in Title I schools in Winston-Salem. She also held positions with the student ambassadors, student government, and welcome squad programs at UNCSA. 

To further nourish her artistry, Bella often puts down her violin to act as passionate beekeeper, religious bare-foot runner, and aspiring sewist (and picks it up again, more acutely tuned to the miracles of being alive!).

Email: bella@hammerandstrings.com