Would you know it if you met the next Picasso at a swap meet? or heard the next Bach if you weren’t scouting for talent? or for that matter, what if you walked past Mos Def performing on the street but didn’t have a refined ear for hip-hop? We appreciate within the context our culture creates for us. And that’s ok. Just nice to bring a little awareness to it.
- Washington DC, Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007
- six different Bach pieces played on a violin for about 45 minutes
- approx 2 thousand people passed through the station
After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later:
the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and then without stopping, continued to walk away.
6 minutes later:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes later:
A 3 year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the entire time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every single parent, without exception, forced them to move on.
45 minutes later:
The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 of these people gave him small amounts of money, probably out of pity but more importantly they still continued to walk at their normal pace. He did collected $32.
1 hour later:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best and most well known musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Washington Metro station was organized by a wealthy Pennsylvania businessman and the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
The full story from Washington Post
(Most of the above copy was taken from a forwarded in email without attribution)
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I would love it if Jamey Austin would post the lines from his poem “Is he famous”. (Or maybe just freestyle a little something something along those lines)