A man came to the Washington metro station in a cold January morning and started playing a violin. He performed 6 compositions within 40 minutes. It was the rush-hour, so more than a thousand people passed him by for this time, the majority of whom were heading to work.

Only 6 people stopped for a while and listened his music during these 40 minutes, and 20 more people gave him money without even stopping to listen. The musician earned $32.

None of the passers-by knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He performed some of the most difficult compositions ever composed, and his instrument was the violin of Stradivari, priced at $3,5 million.

Two days before his performance at the metro station he had a concert in Boston, which was sold out (average ticket price was $100).

Joshua Bell’s performance at the metro station was a part of a social experiment launched by Washington Post to find out more about perceptions, tastes and priorities of people. These were the main questions of the experiment: Do we feel beauty in the passing moments of everyday life? Will we stop to appreciate it? Are we able to recognize talent in an unexpected situation?

Here is one of possible conclusions of this experiment: if we can’t find time to stop for a while and listen some of the best musical compositions ever created, performed by one of the best musicians in the world; if the pace of modern life is so rapid that we become blind and deaf to such things – then what else do we lose?