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 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 a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to make 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 individual 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 six people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. The violinist 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, considered to be one of the best musicians in the world. During his performance in the metro station, Mr. Bell played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth roughly $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell performed at a sold-out at a theater in Boston and the average ticket price per seat was $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station and the event 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? Will we stop and appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion from this experiment is:
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? What did you miss today?
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