Apr. 9, 2008
Buried in the list of Pulitzer prizes for journalism, announced Monday, was the prize for feature writing, awarded to Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post. The story was about violinist Joshua Bell playing incognito in a subway station in Washington, DC, in January, 2007. Bell played during a weekday morning rush hour, at a downtown Metro station, to see if anyone would realize he was more than an average busker. The answer was: not really. Only a handful of people stopped to listen as he played Bach's Chaconne. Just one woman, who had attended his recital the evening before, recognized him. He did, however, make $39. Read the full story and view video of baseball-capped Bell in the subway here.