One of the world’s best violinists poses as a street musician and plays a 3.5 million dollar violin in a Metro station. What happens? Probably the best article I’ve ever read from a newspaper. Hat tip: Paul. ¶
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Andy Hume | April 9th, 2007 @ 5:24 pm |
It’s great. He’s not even really ‘posing’. He just just stepped out there, same as he would on a concert platform and performed. Superb piece from the Washington Post.
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Ed | April 9th, 2007 @ 5:48 pm |
I read this article yesterday, very interesting read!
Sad to see that we are all so hung up on our lives that none of us can stop to admire a beautiful piece of art like his.
Chris Williams | April 9th, 2007 @ 6:01 pm |
Thank you so very much for posting this. What a truly wonderful article.
Chris Williams | April 9th, 2007 @ 6:29 pm |
And an interesting counterpoint here.
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Chewxy | April 9th, 2007 @ 9:31 pm |
Saw this on Freakonomics site. At least it’s good to know that kids recognize talent
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Greg Furry | April 9th, 2007 @ 10:07 pm |
Thanks for the tip. Great read on many levels.
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Chris Albon | April 10th, 2007 @ 12:29 am |
I completely agree, brilliant piece. If it was a book I’d buy 10 copies and give them to my friends. There also are some awesome reader comments on the Washington Post page.
Max Christian Hansen | April 10th, 2007 @ 1:10 am |
Wow. Great article indeed, with fascinating video. Thanks for blogging it.
Domas | April 10th, 2007 @ 1:33 am |
Heh, spent quite a lot thinking about occasions of remembering street musicians – some of them I can remember years afterwards. I’d love to be in there.. Not being in a concert hall just emphasizes the charm…
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Michelle | April 10th, 2007 @ 8:13 am |
There is a great response to the Joshua Bell article by a NYC subway musician in her blog: http://www.SawLady.com/blog
She interprets the situation differently from the Washington Post reporters… I thought you might find it interesting.
Otto | April 10th, 2007 @ 9:47 am |
I saw this a couple of days ago myself. I thought it was the most stuck up pretentious BS I’d ever read. The tone of the piece was just awful, and it really makes me hate classical music snobs.
Don’t get me wrong, I dig classical. But I also like speed metal. The idea that this “experiment” proved anything or made any sort of point whatsoever is laughable, at best.
Perhaps it wasn’t that all these people were ignoring this excellent music. Perhaps it was that all those people who paid 100 bucks a seat to hear it were idiots who overpaid. But did that occur to the writer? Oh no, it’s shameful how busy people focusing on other things don’t hear the wonderful music coming out of this great player and his expensive violin…
Pure fluff and nonsense.
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Andy | April 10th, 2007 @ 6:34 pm |
The shoeshine lady was hilarious: “He was pretty good, that guy. It was the first time I didn’t call the police.”
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yellojkt | April 11th, 2007 @ 7:30 am |
Busking is a completely different talent from concert performing. Joshua Bell is good, but he’s no Naked Cowboy.
Bodhi Goforth | April 11th, 2007 @ 7:20 pm |
Good call, Matt. Nice to see this in the Dashboard aggregator…
In gratitude,
Bodhi
elissa | April 14th, 2007 @ 8:35 pm |
great article, matt. thanks for linking it.