While hurrying along Swanston Street this afternoon, I heard a street performance that compelled me to stop and get closer. It was Tom Ward on classical guitar.
I quickly forgot about my aching feet and stood mesmerised by the agile fingers and hypnotic Latin sounds. I found to my astonishment that I was impressed. It’s not common that street performances impress me positively, and while I’ve never booed a street performer, I’ve seen and heard things that have made it tempting. Today was different.
Besides being a highly skilled classical musician, Tom Ward is also a charismatic performer. This may be why he played to an ever increasing crowd. Eventually he had to tell everyone that he was taking a break. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before.
CDs were on sale for $20. I bought one and had it autographed. I was not the only one to do this. The CD I bought played well, and the performances were true to the ones I heard this afternoon. At first, I questioned whether a CD of any street performer could be worth the money. When Tom Ward played Paganini with ease and beauty, I figured it would be a worthy investment. It was.
There were a lot of people recording video of his performance. It might even be on YouTube by now. He has several performances on YouTube already. If you keep an eye out you might catch him on Swanston Street.