Three summers ago, playing the violin was "like a hobby" to Joshua Bell. Now the 14-year-old high school sophomore has a summer full of concert bookings culminating in a September performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

He is to be the youngest artist ever to appear with the orchestra during its regular subscription series.

Bell said his attitude toward the instrument changed three summers ago when he attended the Meadowmount School in the Adirondacks in New York, where he spent five hours a day practicing. After that, he says, "I thought maybe I'd pursue violin seriously."

He divided his time between North Bloomington High School and the Indiana University School of Music, and won the Seventeen-General Motors National Concerto Competition on March 1 in Rochester, N.Y.

Bell's summer concert series begins Saturday when he performs Tchaikovsky's violin concerto in D major with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Bell, the son of an Indiana University research psychologist, now practices only four hours daily.

"Sometimes there are other things I'd like to do. I play a lot of sports," he said.