Joshua Bell, The Violinist

A man sat at a metro station
in Washington DC
and started to play the violin;
it was a cold January morning.
He played six Bach pieces
for about 45 minutes.
During that time,
since it was rush hour,
it was calculated that thousands of people
went through the station,
most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by
and a middle aged man noticed
there was musician playing.
He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds
and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later,
the violinist received his first dollar tip:
a woman threw the money in the till
and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later,
someone leaned against the wall to listen to him,
but the man looked at his watch
and started to walk again.
Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention
was a 3 year old boy.
His mother tagged him along,
hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.
Finally the mother pushed hard
and the child continued to walk
turning his head all the time.
This action was repeated
by several other children.
All the parents, without exception,
forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played,
only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while.
About 20 gave him money
but continued to walk their normal pace.
He collected $32.
When he finished playing and silence took over,
no one noticed it.
No one applauded,
nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this
but the violinist was Joshua Bell,
one of the best 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 his playing in the subway,
Joshua Bell sold out at a theater
in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story.

Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station
was organized by the Washington Post
as part of an social experiment about perception,
taste and priorities of people.

The outlines were:

in a commonplace environment
at an inappropriate hour:
Do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize the talent
in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions
from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment
to stop and listen
to one of the best musicians in the world
playing the best music ever written,
how many other things are we missing?

Try now to miss the beauty of life coming you way . . .

Here’s the YouTube clip of Josh playing
from the metro cam: