A Violinist in the MetroA 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 thousand 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, 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 theatre in
Boston and the average ticket was $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 inferences 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?
Read the full article here ....its kind a long but good
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
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