A great article from the Washington Post about what would happen if a great violinist on a great instrument put out his hat and played during the morning commute at one of the busiest commuting hubs of the nation’s capitol. Too good for words!
I found the most interesting bit to be about the little boy who was the most interested (of the 1000+ people who passed by) in Bell’s playing, but wasn’t allowed to stop and check it out by his busy, harried mother. There’s a lesson in that: all children have an innate interest in the arts because they are novel to them, new. Feeding that interest, even if it means stopping to watch an unknown busker play some Bach, is the future of our classical music audiences and better citizens who appreciate the arts.
2 replies on “josh bell plays the metro”
Many thanks for adding the link.
A number of years ago we were on a southeast art walk and came across Adrienne Stacy’s studio. The pottery was beautiful but what was most exceptional for us was the string quartet playing in her garage open to the street.
Amazingly beautiful … we spent 45 minutes of our last hour of the art walk listening to this gift (Adrienne for arranging it and the musicians for giving their music to us). When would we ever have such an opportunity again? What a wonderful time and an even better memory.
You’re the only person I’ve read about who commented about the little boy. I was also really struck by how fascinated that boy in the stroller seemed to be by the music, and it didn’t seem to me that he just was interested by the novelty of it. He liked the music and wanted to listen to more.