When a Korean tourist joined a Florence street band

When a Korean tourist joined a Florence street band

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norman lebrecht

July 03, 2016

Jun-Hyuk Choi studies doublebass in Seoul. He saw a vacant instrument in a long-established Florentine and asked, respectfully, if he could join in.

Almost four million people have now watched the video.

Comments

  • Robert Holmén says:

    How did they get that close-mic’d sound with no mics?

    • Rich Patina says:

      There is a pick up on the bass. I can’t tell which brand, but there is a patch cord going from the tailpiece to the amplifier.

      • Robert Holmén says:

        Ah, I see a very tiny cord coming from the violin also!

        Very generous of the bass player to let a tourist start plucking away on his bass.

    • someone says:

      This performance was recorded on the mobile phone (Galaxy S6 Edge), not even a camera.
      And no external microphones used for recording, she (the one who recorded) wrote the comment.
      What a phone…
      Amazing!

  • Ernest Low says:

    Bravissimo! Music is truly a universal language.

  • Ron Reuben says:

    The violinist ( whose appearance reminds me of the late Joe DePasquale) plays and swings his ass off. The bassist was a surprise and a delight as well.

    What a delightful, spontaneous event.

    Loved it.

  • Michael Volpe says:

    And all next to one of the greatest buildings in the world.

  • someone says:

    How lovely!
    This is the best street performance I’ve ever seen.

    I watched it just now because the comments were so good and am very surprised.
    The violin is so good and the bass is really wonderful.
    They truly feel the music.
    What a heartwarming surprise!

    This is the second time that a street performance touched my heart.
    The first one was the one I saw in Hamburg, quite a long time ago.

    There were 2 Russians, one was singing a song and the other one was playing an instrument.
    Both were men and it wasn’t crossover or jazz, it was classical music I think.
    Their music was good, but not this much, however, when I saw their faces, I felt my heart was aching.

    My German friend saw my face and said to me “Aren’t they good? They’re Russian.” and gave them some money.
    I don’t know what they had been through, but their faces and music were telling me something very sad.
    I felt something like deep sorrow.

    They must have been good musicians, or at least were dreaming about it once, but there, they were playing music to live the day.
    I think many people in Hamburg saw them.
    I hope they are better now.

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