The Experiment

Contributed by Lion Kalpen Shah
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play theviolin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces forabout 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it wascalculated that thousands of people went through the station, most ofthem on their way to work.Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musicianplaying. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and thenhurried up to meet his schedule.A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a womanthrew 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 hewas late for work.The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mothertagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at theviolinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued towalk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated byseveral other children. All the parents, without exception, forcedthem to move on.In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped andstayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walktheir normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing andsilence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was thereany recognition.No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the bestmusicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate piecesever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at atheater in Boston and the seats averaged $100. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized bythe Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception,taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplaceenvironment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do westop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpectedcontext?One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the bestmusicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how manyother things are we missing?T H I N K.....................................................................................