An unassuming man in a T-shirt and baseball cap stood playing a $4 million violin near the Washington DC subway station entrance. For 43 minutes, he played beautifully on his nearly 300-year-old instrument. This is no surprise since Joshua Bell is one of the world’s most talented violinists. He is used to standing-room-only audiences and adoring fans asking for his autograph.
Ebony and Ivory
In 1982, two elderly musicians would each suffer a stroke and become disabled on one side of their body. Without the use of both hands, the two women suddenly found themselves unable to make music. That is, until the day they finally met each other.
Thai Elephant Orchestra
In northern Thailand, a group of 16 musicians have formed a unique orchestra. They play different types of music, from traditional Thai songs to Beethoven. They also create their own songs, and sometimes improvise in live performances. They don’t always pay attention to their conductor, though. And they’re a bit too heavy at times on the percussion instruments. But that doesn’t matter to their audiences. These musicians are elephants.
Black Man Befriends Racists
Daryl Davis is a black man who has made a name for himself befriending white supremacists. Davis learned about racism at a young age. In 1968, the ten-year-old boy was marching in a Boy Scouts parade when people started throwing rocks and bottles at him. He thought that they must really hate the Boy Scouts until he realized none of the other boys was getting hit. Davis was the only black Boy Scout marching that day. When he got home, his parents explained that there were people in the world who hated him because of the color of his skin. From that day onward, he became fascinated with racism.
The Purpose of Life…
A lot of people think that the way to learn English is to study, study, study. And then one day they’ll be perfect. Work, work, work. And then one day, far in the future, they will be successful. They will be 100% fluent and speak just like a native speaker. 100% Perfectly.
Music and Learning
There is some recent research that shows an interesting connection between music and learning. Fabrice Dossville a researcher at a university in France did an experiment with 249 students of sports psychology. He divided them into two groups of equal academic ability. Each group listened to a one-hour lecture on sports psychology. One group listened to classical music in the background during the lecture. The other group listened to the lecture with no music. After the lecture, they took a test to see how much they could remember. The group that listened to classical music did much much better on the test.