Hi, Ron!! Here's Joshua busking on NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9521098
<<click on the "Listen" button above the picture>> It is difficult to clarify ones feelings about subway perfromers. Some are very good, indeed, and for that reason one would usually stop and listen for a while. I recall a very good violinist playing Bach solo partitas. A few days later I encountered him on the subway as a passenger, and he greeted me and we talked for a while. Harvard student. Intended to pursue a career as violinist. Why not pick up some spare change while practicing?<g> That was his attitude. I have a few regulars to whom I always give a dollar or two. Including a bongo player who's been at the Copley Station for several years. He knows who Gerardo Velez is. Gerardo (a former student) is surely the one and only college student who played his entrance examination on bongos.<g> =====AJN (Boston, Mass.)===== This week's free download from Classical Music Library is Mozart's Serenade No. 11 in E flat, K. 375, performed by the Ensemble á Vent Français Bordeaux Aquitaine, Michel Arrignon, conductor. To download, click on the CML link here http://mysite.verizon.net/arthurjness/ My Web Page: Scores http://mysite.verizon.net/vzepq31c/arthurjnesslutescores/ Other Matters: http://mysite.verizon.net/arthurjness/ http://mysite.verizon.net/vzepq31c/musexx/ =================================== ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Fletcher" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 12:08 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Thought Provoking | Slightly off topic, but I thought I should share this recent message... | | Subject: Thought Provoking | | | A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the | violin; it was a cold December morning. He played six Bach pieces for | about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was | calculated that a thousand 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 on her | way. | | | A few minutes later, a man leaned against the wall to listen to him, | but he 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 | urged him along, 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 a 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? | | | May the new year bring unexpected beauty from everyday life! | | -- | | | To get on or off this list see list information at | http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
