Joshua Bell with youngstersAlain Barker/The Globe and Mail
"For me, it was just a little stunt," says American violinist Joshua Bell of his now-infamous busking session in a Washington metro station. "I certainly had no idea that we'd be talking about it almost 11 years later, and that I'd be asked about it pretty much every day of my life."
In 2007, the Grammy Award-winning artist was asked by Washington Post journalist Gene Weingarten to perform roughly 30-40 minutes of music in L'Enfant Plaza station. Hidden cameras captured the more than 1,000 passersby; out of those, seven stopped to listen and one recognized him.
The story of the famed violinist in the subway station has proved fascinating – and inspiring. Kathy Stinson and Dusan Petricic recount the tale in their award-winning children's picture book, The Man with the Violin. Appropriately, the book has been transformed into music by composer Anne Dudley; this month, Bell heads to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to perform the work's Canadian premiere.
"I'm all for little adventures," he says, recalling the genesis of the experiment. Despite Weingarten's lofty expectations, Bell anticipated a more apathetic outcome of playing Bach for unsuspecting commuters. "I told him, 'It's not going to get a big crowd.'" His prediction proved accurate, and he attributes the mild response to the performance environment, which lacked the interaction he finds essential to experiencing classical music. "It's all about interaction," he says. "That's the beauty of it, is that interaction and how it stimulates your brain."
Bell is a classical musician who enjoys a level of celebrity, a rare subset among professional violinists. "On a given day, I may be stopped a few times," he says, adding that he gets spotted more frequently nearer to places such as Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall.
Since his performance in the metro station, Bell has joined the faculty at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music as a senior lecturer and became the music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, an appointment recently extended through 2020.
And Bell's fame has arguably increased; much like Renée Fleming's singing of the American national anthem at the 2014 Super Bowl, Bell's busking was a bridge-building action, connecting his high level of artistry to a space shared by a much broader demographic of people outside of the traditional concert hall.
Compared to most of Bell's performances – for an audience of willing, eager listeners – his experience busking was decidedly one-sided. "It's not the most fun thing in the world, being ignored," he says with a laugh. "It's not about me being ignored, it's more about the music itself. When you're playing Bach's Chaconne – which is one of the most profound, amazing inventions of the human mind ever – and you're throwing it out as not being listened to, not having any value, that's what's sort of annoying as a performer."
Perhaps if he had chosen a "venue" closer to a hub of classical music – say, Carnegie Hall – Bell might have managed a higher rate of recognition than his 1/1000 in L'Enfant Plaza. Yet, the violinist is aware that his celebrity is selective, and dependent on being in specific circles. "After a concert, I'm a celebrity," he admits. "Everyone who has come is there to hear me."
Yet, for much of the time, Bell's fame is similar to that of many classical musicians. Names such as Radu Lupu and Yannick Nézet-Séguin mean a lot to those who care greatly for the genre, yet among the public, they're far from household names.
"I kind of like my small dose of it," says Bell of his celebrity. That fame is certainly attributable to his skill and dedication to his art, yet he is not averse to finding meaningful ways of attracting new fans. He has collaborated with the likes of Josh Groban (Ennio Morricone's Cinema Paradiso) and Scarlett Johansson (Before My Time, Academy Award-winner for best original song in the documentary Chasing Ice) and he can be heard playing on the original film soundtracks for Angels & Demons (with Hans Zimmer) and Defiance (with James Newton Howard). He has appeared on The Tonight Show and Sesame Street, and he made cameos in all three seasons of Mozart in the Jungle.
"A lot of great musicians would say, 'I wouldn't be caught dead doing something like that; it's not becoming of a classical musician to do something like that.'" Bell, however, sees great value in extending his work beyond the strict bounds of classical circles. He has met first-time concertgoers who come to hear him play, after hearing his work in other realms. "I think that's great, if it helps bring people in."
In the age of social media, there can be a blurry line for classical musicians between using the platforms for visibility and unique self-promotion, and resorting to gimmickry or cosmetic stunts. Bell weighs in carefully on the topic: "What I do know is that you can never do anything that pleases everybody."
Perhaps thankfully, Bell admits that his forte lies less in using social media than in the top-tier artistry that firmly supports his fame. He delegates to experts in the field; although, "It is like pulling teeth, a little bit, for them to get me to give them content, like pictures in my dressing room. I have a hard time concentrating on doing that sort of thing when I'm preparing Brahms's Violin Concerto."
Fair enough.
Joshua Bell performs with the NAC Orchestra on Dec. 20 at Ottawa's National Arts Centre.