Who is that violinist who plays so beautifully outside the station?

“Sometimes I feel a bit like a psychologist,” said Paulina Sobczyk as she spoke to a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung during a break from playing outside the station. “I look at the people passing by and wonder if they would like to hear something classical or something lighter, and play accordingly,” she said in broken German.  “If they go on to smile, then I know I have made the right choice.”

Sobczyk has been living in Zug since the end of June, after her boyfriend found a new job here in January. “It was his great dream to come here,” she said, “although for me it means starting again after finishing my studies to become a conductor; then I thought, “Why not?””

It is the first time the 29-year-old has been performing on the streets, but as the reaction from the public has been so positive, she decided to continue, playing mainly in the mornings and again in the late afternoons. She likes this location outside the station, too, as the acoustics are very good. She went on to say how she had been playing the violin since she was seven years old. Both her elder brother and sister had gone to music school and but when it came her going, her mother tried to put her off, saying it was too tough and complicated. “However, I am an ambitious person and insisted I went, too.” And she did.

As well as studying music in Krakow, she also ran a small business finding and organising the right music for weddings and events and such like, sometimes performing herself. Then she conducted choirs, such as those for old people and gave music lessons, too. In fact she is also giving private lessons in Switzerland already, thanks to contact through Facebook and she hopes to find more pupils or even perform at events here. Indeed, some people who have heard her at the station have already enquired about the possibility of her giving private lessons.

Of course, she misses her former pupils in Poland but goes back occasionally, something she intends to do in the future, too.

What did she play for you as you walked by?