The MTA has welcomed aboard its first new class of subway performers in the Music Under New York (MUNY) program since 2019, and will hold a contest this month to determine which member of the class is the favorite among transit riders.
The 24 artists joining MUNY perform a broad array of musical styles. The class includes solo violinists, saxophonists, and accordion players; brass jazz outfits and rock bands; salsa, gospel, and folk singers.
All of them were part of a group of 40 musicians who auditioned to join the program at Grand Central Madison on June 28, performing their acts in front of a panel of musicians, music industry players, and transit officials. The agency had received applications from 128 aspirants.
“The auditions are a unique New York experience; a showcase of musical performances that reflect the diversity of New York,” said Sandra Bloodworth, the director of the MTA’s Arts & Design department. “Hosting the Music Under New York auditions for the first time since 2019 was truly memorable – there was a plethora of talent drawn to the opportunity to perform with Music Under New York – in the greatest venue there is and where dreams can flourish.”
On July 19, the MTA will launch a contest on its website allowing anyone, New Yorker or otherwise, to vote on their favorite of the bunch. The winner will be announced on July 27.
Anyone can legally perform in the subway system, and many subway musicians are not part of MUNY. But the more than 350 members of MUNY, which began in 1987, are afforded a special status among the system’s buskers: participants get to perform under an official MTA banner and are afforded dibs on some of the transit system’s most coveted spots to perform, those with a high volume of passengers where tips are aplenty.
MUNY artists represent a vast swath of musical styles befitting the diversity that makes New York, and the subway system, such a vibrant place. At various points, subway riders can take in performances on Caribbean steel pans, Gambian kora, Celtic harp, and Andean pipes, along with more familiar fare like violin, guitar, saxophone, or vocals. The MTA organizes over 7,500 performances in the system each year.
The new MUNY class is the first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused ridership to plummet to an extent the MTA has still not fully recovered. Like the rest of New York, MUNY performances were paused in March 2020 before resuming in June 2021, but the agency refrained from its annual addition of 25 or so musicians to the program until this year.
