Joshua Bell Does Washington Subway Station Performance Do-Over

Violinist Joshua Bell has today returned to perform at Washington's Union Station, as he famously did in 2007 - but this time, the 46 year old virtuoso was anything but ignored.

JOSHUA BELL | BACH | VIOLIN CONCERTO IN A MINOR | 1ST MVT | UNION STATION, WASHINGTON | 2014

Hundreds of music fans today packed the central Washington train station to hear Bell perform works by Bach and Mendelssohn – alongside 8 young musicians he is mentoring for an upcoming HBO documentary.

Seven years ago, Bell famously performed incognito for $32.17, in tips at the same subway stop – a social experiment hosted by The Washington Post to see if hurried commuters could recognize beauty in their midst.

Nearly every day for the past seven years, someone has reminded Bell of his subway performance, the concert violinist has said.

Joshua performed with a group of young musicians he mentored for an upcoming HBO special “Joshua Bell: A YoungArts MasterClass” – which will air on October 14th.

His new album 'Bach' was also released today – on the Sony Classical label.