Net-Centric Virtuosity

From CrossTalk magazine:


If you traveled through the L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail Station in Washington D.C, on January 12, 2007 between 7:51 and 8:32 a.m., you may – or may not – have witnessed a rare treat. A street musician – not an ordinary musician – Joshua Bell; recognized as the nation’s best classical musician. He stood next to a garbage can in jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a Nat’s baseball cap and performed six pre-eminent classical pieces on a $3 million violin handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari.

What many pay thousands of dollars to hear was free. The Washington Post arranged the performance as an experiment on context, perception, and priorities.

In 43 minutes, 1,097 people passed by the artist. Seven stopped for at least a minute, 27 gave money totaling $32.17, and 1,070 dashed by in oblivion. Gene Weingarten covered the event in a copious Washington Post article [1] including video clips on the Post’s Web site [2].

The scene conjures up Churchill’s observation, “Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”