Street Musician Day

In pedestrian crossings, inside metro stations and on city streets, melodies are often heard performed by “free artists”, devoid of pathos and living for art Musicians sing and play their own and other people’s works on instruments to receive pleasure and gratitude from passers-by Fans leave some money in boxes and guitar cases of performers who perform in train cars, in squares, in city alleys and alleys Every year, professionals and amateurs give concerts on the first Saturday of May, thus celebrating Street Musician's Day The first festive events took place in 2007 in Lithuania After 2 years, Street Musician Day acquired the status of an international celebration The initiator of its establishment is the actor and frontman of the Vilnius rock band Foje Andrius Mamontovas According to established tradition, on the first weekend of May, people in different countries of the world take to the streets to listen to musicians perform Among them you can meet real celebrities, for example, violinist Joshua Bell, who played incognito in the New York subway in 2007 His speech was part of an experiment conducted by the Washington Post Journalists wanted to find an answer to the question: are people ready to perceive classical art in everyday life? And to understand whether there is a place in it for an encounter with the beautiful and sublime, will talent be recognized in an environment that is not conducive to this? There is nothing surprising in D Bell playing the Stradivarius violin in the subway Many famous singers and composers began their careers performing on the street So, in her youth, Zemfira, still unknown to anyone, performed for passers-by in Ufa, performing songs by the groups “Aquarium” and “Nautius” Some foreign musicians also received their first applause from hurrying passers-by At the beginning of his career, George Michael sang songs from Freddie Mercury's repertoire in London subway passages, and Justin Bieber played guitar on the streets of Ontario Being a popular musician, U2 lead singer Bono once went to the square of his native Dublin and performed his favorite Christmas compositions The winner of many music awards and competitions, Sting, out of curiosity, went down to the London underground in 1993 and earned 40 pounds for a solo concert He later repeated his experiment in Manhattan In 2014, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith was spotted on Arbat, singing along to a Russian musician with a song from the group’s repertoire, showing that he sees nothing wrong with street performances Over the years, Igor Butman and Dmitry Malikov, Grigory Leps and Polina Gagarina performed at Moscow metro stations as part of a charity project In honor of Street Musician Day, the sounds of violin and flute, accordion and guitar, drum and saxophone are heard in subway passages and city streets Passers-by sing along and dance to folklore compositions, songs from the repertoire of The Beatles, Queen and Depeche Mode This is how Street Musician's Day is celebrated in different countries of the world