From the Washington Post. Joshua Bell, the world-famous concert violinist and former child prodigy, donned jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap, and played in a Washington DC Metro station for almost an hour. Total take? $32.

In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run — for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.

Another interesting tidbit from the article, about Bell’s violin.

Bell bought it a few years ago. He had to sell his own Strad and borrow much of the rest. The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million.

I bought Joshua Bell’s Gershwin Fantasy many years ago, and am a fan.