What's a Concert Violinist to Do in Spare Time?

I learned while at a Ravinia Festival concert last evening at which violinist Joshua Bell performed the Mendelssohn Concerto, that in his free time (as if any musician of his caliber actually has some) he has been known to play "street musician" within the Metro. Of course, along with most anything in this life, there's a Youtube video of him so doing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

Way off rails and off topic but please Mr. Paniagua, allow me a rant. I cant believe it, but some inconsiderate dunderhead, both to the artist and anyone occupying seats in his proximity, was videotaping on some small hand held device the entire concert. Suffice to say, there is a strict (but how will it ever be enforced?) prohibition against such printed in the program, but in this day and age it seems as if anything goes regarding recording/imaging. I could have expected such from some kid at a rock concert (not that I'm about to go to one to find out first hand), but from a "fortysomething' couple attending the Chicago Symphony......?

Do such at Orchestra Hall and I think they would get nailed.

I agree, Mr. Norman, that kind of conduct should be ticketed by Metrorail Public Safety

Actually, where he is in the video, he's outside of the Metro system entirely. He's in the La Promenade area outside L'Enfant Plaza station. The station entrance is in the top/back middle of the shot, and the musician is to the left. So he's not only outside the system, but also apparently outside the fifteen-foot exclusion zone around the station entrance as well. Now whether the property owner of the building he's in wants to expel him, that's another story, but he's outside Transit's jurisdiction, I believe.

Bell had permission to play in La Promenade from the building’s property manager.

The L’Enfant performance was the idea of Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten, who originally wanted Bell to play in a Metro station but Metro wouldn’t allow it.

Here are links to Weingarten’s story on the L’Enfant performance and a follow-up discussion with the writer:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01721.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01228.html

Thanks to this forum, the more i read of this event, the less it appears that it was anything impromptu:

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/joshua-bell-subway.shtml

As it was described to me when eixtting the performance at Ravinia, it sounded quite so, but I suppose one should realize that world-class musicians 'dont' exactly' have the word impromptu in their lexicons.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Thanks to this forum, the more i read of this event, the less it appears that it was anything impromptu:

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/joshua-bell-subway.shtml

As it was described to me when eixtting the performance at Ravinia, it sounded quite so, but I suppose one should realize that world-class musicians 'dont' exactly' have the word impromptu in their lexicons.

That's Washington, D.C. People in that town wouldn't even notice the Devil playing the "Mephisto Waltz"!