• Skywalk virtuoso

  To promote a Des Moines Symphony concert, Concertmaster Jonathan Sturm fiddles on the skywalk.

• Through a publicity stunt for a good cause, master violinist Jonathan Sturm redeemed himself for something he wanted to do nearly a quarter century ago.
  
  A life-changing event? Not hardly. The associate professor of music spent an hour in September as a street musician on a busy noontime downtown Des Moines skywalk.
  
  With his violin case open and inviting donations, the Des Moines Symphony Concertmaster played from memory virtuoso music by Bach, Paganini and others.
  
  "It was hard work," said Sturm, who teaches music history and plays viola for the Ames Piano Quartet. "It really made me appreciate my day job."
  
  The symphony's publicity folks asked Sturm to do the skywalk gig. They even got him the necessary busking license to legally play out in public.
  
  The ploy on unsuspecting skywalkers was to promote an appearance at the symphony's season-opener by Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell. In early 2007 Bell played a similar incognito concert in a Washington, D.C., subway station just to see if anyone noticed.
  
  Both were dressed casually, Bell in a Washington Nationals baseball cap, Sturm in a red Cyclones hat. According to an article in The Des Moines Register, each was only recognized once.
  
  Of course, Sturm's performance was a cut or two - or three - above that of the average Iowa skywalk musician. Some recognized the quality of the musicianship. The Register reported at least one listener who never donates to street performers was moved to drop some cash into Sturm's case.
  
  After graduating from Oberlin College in 1983, Sturm visited Europe with his "junky" violin in tow. He envisioned himself playing in busy public areas for passing Europeans. "There's a certain romance seeing the musician on the street corner," he said.
  
  However, he "chickened out," leaving the instrument at his aunt's home in England before touring the continent.
  
  "I didn't want to take the risk," Sturm said. "This gave me a chance to do it after all."
  
  Sturm said it was his own personal challenge to play the difficult music by memory. Yet he constantly reviews his pieces, making the task easier for him.
  
  "I tell my students it's so important when a person learns a piece to keep it in their fingers or voices so they are bringing the music back from recent memory as opposed to the deep past."
  
  Sturm's efforts earned $24.91, which he donated to the symphony. Bell's D.C. performance collected a whopping $32.17. Sturm had hoped to beat Bell in dollar-for-dollar earnings, and some friends remarked that, on a cost-of-living adjusted basis (Des Moines vs. D.C.) he did, but Sturm would not agree to such "accounting irregularities."
  
  "Josh is still the king, darn it all," he joked.

Around LAS
December 3-16, 2007