When Joshua Bell was 3 and living in Bloomington, Indiana, he would string rubber bands on dresser-drawer pulls and play tunes that he heard his mother play on the piano.

Now 31, Bell is an acclaimed violinist who lives in New York. Each year, he performs more than 100 concerts, recitals and chamber music collaborations. He plays an Antonio Stradivari violin, dated 1732.

Not bad for someone who started out playing rubber bands.

His parents chose the violin for Bell when he was 4. Playing it was like a game, he said. ''I did like the challenge of it.'' When he was 11, he started studying with Josef Gingold, renowned violinist and teacher. ''He was one of the reasons for my serious interest in music. It wasn't until then I started to love it.''

At 14, Bell won the Seventeen Magazine-General Motors competition. He created a sensation throughout the music world with his Philadelphia Orchestra debut that year, followed by his Carnegie Hall debut and an Avery Fisher career grant.

One of his latest projects is artistic consultant for ''The Red Violin,'' directed by Francois Girard, who made the acclaimed ''Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.''

The new film traces the 300-year history of a violin known for its unusual reddish hue. It stars Carlo Cecchi, Jean-Luc Bideau, Greta Scacchi, Jason Flemyng, Sylvia Chang and, in a pivotal role, Samuel L. Jackson.

''The Red Violin'' is propelled by a score created by contemporary composer John Corigliano. The music unites the film's many vivid and unforgettable images to create a moving and magical story about the enduring relationship between life and art.

Bell is a soloist on the soundtrack, released by Sony Classical, with the London Philharmonia conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

''Gershwin Fantasy'' was Bell's first release for Sony Classical. A new CD, ''Short Trip Home,'' will be released this fall, with Bell, bassist Edgar Meyer and bluegrass musicians Sam Bush and Mike Marshall playing music composed by Meyer, an old friend of Bell's from Indiana University.

He also appears briefly in a concert scene in ''Fifty Violins,'' a new film starring Meryl Streep.

1. How did you get involved in ''The Red Violin''?

Bell: It was maybe four years ago that Francois Girard, the director, came to me, wanting me to play the music. He didn't know whether it would be a composer writing in styles of music over the centuries or using period music for the various times. It became clear that the best way would be to have a composer write. Corigliano was everybody's first choice.

2. Did you play all the violin music?

Bell: Yes. The red violin had to have its own personality. The same person playing tied everything together. Christoph Koncz, as the child violinist, plays violin. I played his music, taking into account it was a child playing. He learned it very well and was able to synch it. He looked very realistic when he was playing.

3. Did you really play the red violin?

Bell: It was made for the movie. A shop in London made six of them, to look like the same instrument in various stages over the years. They were props in a way. I don't know what they did with them. They didn't give one to me. I never did play on it. All the sounds were made on my Strad, which was made in 1732. I first saw it at a dealer in Chicago. It took me years of looking. I loved it. It was sold to someone else. It was on loan to me for two years. Seven years ago, I finally bought it from the owner. I'm lucky to end up with it.

4. Are you seen in the movie?

Bell: I was the same height and similar build to Jason Flemyng, who played the virtuoso-composer Frederick Pope. I was able to dress up looking almost exactly like him, like a stuntman. You see me playing, but not my face, from a distance. There are close-up shots of my hands. Once, you see his face with my left hand around the violin and someone else's right hand using the bow. It looked like he was playing. It always looks silly when actors try to pretend they're playing the violin. The music was already recorded, fortunately.

5. Are people going to find a movie about a violin boring?

Bell: I don't think so. In one scene Greta Scacchi was dancing naked in front of Flemyng and the two of us who were playing the violin. He was supposed to be inspired to compose and play by sexual passion. There was one scene where people were listening outside his dressing room. I had to play in a way that sounded like he was trying to do two things at once.