I don’t know Joshua Bell – apparently he is a violinist and one of the best musicians in the world.  This is the real story of Joshua Bell playing incognito in a Washington D.C. metro station and no one really noticed except for a few souls.

Joshua Bell played six Bach pieces in 45 minutes, using a violin that costs $3.4 million.

Two days before playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out seats in Boston with tickets averaging $100.

Allegedly, the whole thing was an experiment conducted by the Washington Post – part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

If you should know, in the 45 minutes that Joshua Bell played, only six people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.

A woman, stayed until the end and actually recognized him.  I think what’s more awesome than the experiment is the fact that a woman stayed and actually recognized Joshua Bell.