

Violin virtuoso plays in the subway, nobody notices [2007] - jpablo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

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baddox
Assuming I was headed to or from work with something of a schedule to keep to,
I wouldn't stop. I have nothing against classical music or virtuoso
violinists, but I'm just not actively into it. If there was someone handing
out free tickets to see a famous violin virtuoso (but with the caveat that it
was starting immediately and I had to head to the concert hall immediately), I
also wouldn't go. This doesn't really say anything about people not liking or
appreciating classical music, or even people's ability to recognize a skillful
musician.

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zipdog
A video of the performance is here:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=myq8upzJDJc#t=17s)

(A handful notice)

As a test of whether the public at large can recognize quality musicianship
(is the public uncultured, or is the diff between good to great musicians just
not significant?) I think playing in the afternoon would have been a better
time.

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mhartl
The author (Gene Weingarten) won a Pulitzer Prize for this story in 2008. [1]

The movie linked in the article is good, but I wish they would release the
complete recording. I'd love to see it.

[1] <http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2008-Feature-Writing>

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dromey
The lesson I draw from this is that this music, and more so its minor
celebrity performers and instruments are just not relevant and fascinating to
the commuters in the DC metro when they're trying to get to work. Even if they
don't listen to classical music at all it doesn't mean they have no taste or
should be looked down on.

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gus_massa
Please add [2007] to the title of the submission. The firs thing I thought is
that I had read something like this before a few yeas ago.

