Stjepan Hauser (left) and Luka Sulic

1. Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser are two, classically trained cellists. As young boys training in the best European music schools, they dreamed of one day playing in a symphony orchestra. The young men first met in the city of Pula in the European country of Croatia.  One day, one of Hauser’s friends proposed that

Luka and Stjepan step out of their comfort zones.  Instead of playing traditional classical, symphonic music, he suggested playing a pop music song with their cellos!!!

The director specifically suggested Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” So Luka and Stjepan produced a music video of their cello rendition of Jackson’s song and posted it on You Tube on January 20th, 2011.  The response went viral.   Watch Luka and Stjepan’s extending themselves out of their comfort zone with their cello interpretation of Michael Jackson’s classic song.

This response to this You Tube video was overwhelming.   There were over three million views in the first two weeks and over ten million views as of April 2011.  As a result, the young cellists transitioned their careers to playing more pop music with their cellos.  Today, they’ve produced three albums and played live performances all over the world.   Here’s another of their popular performances played before a live audience.

2.  If you feel comfortable, please let me know if there is anything you have tried or hoping to try outside of your comfort zone like learning a different skill, joining a new club or activity, traveling to a new place to see something you haven’t seen before, meeting people different from you to experience a different life perspective or do anything else that seems interesting from afar but to this point in your life you’ve been too nervous to try.

• If there is nothing you’ve been interested in trying out of your comfort zone, then please state in a well written sentence that there is nothing you’ve been interested in trying outside of your comfort zone and state the reason why you do not want to do so.
• If there is something you’ve been interested in trying out of your comfort zone, please tell me in well written sentences what the new experience is and your how you feel about yourself and the new experience as you try this new experience.

3.  Read the article I distributed in class today entitled “Why Attitude Is More Important Than Intelligence“.  After reading the article, identify yourself as either “fixed mindset” or “growth mindset” and give examples of your actions that indicate you are in this category.   As always, please express your ideas in well written, grammatically correct with perfect spelling sentences.  Thank you.

4. This assignment must be sent to me electronically NO LATER than Wednesday, December 16.   Thank you.