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Apr 11, 2007

"We are born into a vast room whose walls consist of a thousand doors of possibility. Each door is flung open to the world outside, and the room is filled with light and noise. We close some of the doors deliberately, sometimes with fear, sometimes with calm certainty. Others seem to close by themselves, some so quietly that we do not even notice." --Terry Teachout

Violin Virtuoso Goes Incognito

He emerges from the Washington Metro and positions himself against a bare wall. Joshua Bell is one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. A onetime child prodigy, 39-year-old Bell usually plays for standing-room-only audiences so respectful of his artistry that they stifle their coughs until the silence between movements. But what would happen if Bell played for spare change, incognito, outside a bustling Metro stop in Washington; would anyone notice? In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?