Background
Bella was born in Liptovský Mikuláš, Austrian Empire (now Slovakia), and raised in a Roman Catholic family.
composer conductor educationist
Bella was born in Liptovský Mikuláš, Austrian Empire (now Slovakia), and raised in a Roman Catholic family.
He studied at the college in Levoča and a seminary in Banská Bystrica before taking a degree at Vienna University.
Bella was ordained a priest in 1866. From 1869 to 1881 he was town director of music at Kremnica. From 1921 to 1928 he lived in retirement in Vienna, moving to Bratislava in 1928, where he died in 1936.