A throng of New Yorkers stopped to gawk as a tall violinist bounced from one foot to the other, at times using his bow to tap the body of his instrument for effect. Nearby, a man sat banging on a neon yellow drum. Together, they made music that was fun to listen to and difficult to categorize — a mash-up of hip-hop, dance, house, classical, Greek and country.
The musicians, Adrian Jusdanis and Alan Zavodsky, who make up the band New Thousand, were performing at Grand Central Madison on a recent morning as part of an audition for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Music Under New York program, which brings talented musicians across genres to dozens of locations within the city’s subway system.
While anyone can perform in the subway, only those who make it through the auditions can play or sing under the pink “Music Under New York” banner.
“It’s advantageous as subway performers to have spots that you know are yours at certain times,” Mr. Jusdanis said after the audition. “A guarantee of a good spot is unheard-of in the world of street performing.”
This year, the M.T.A. received 147 applications for the program and invited 52 of those musicians to audition. The numbers are slowly creeping back up after plummeting amid the coronavirus pandemic. The program returned in 2021 after a 14-month halt; before the pandemic, the M.T.A. received hundreds of applications each year.
“It’s no surprise that there’s such a demand to perform for the greatest and most diverse audience,” Sandra Bloodworth, the director of the M.T.A’.s Arts & Design program, said in a statement after the auditions. “A chance encounter with live music is a highlight of the transit experience.”
The musicians who auditioned played not only for the two dozen judges who had gathered, many of them performers themselves, but also for the commuters who were passing by. They had five minutes to make their mark.
Nadya Esenyan, 64, was on her way to work when she heard the salsa beat of one of the auditions. “Now I don’t want to go to work,” she said. “I just want to stay here.”
Jean-Marie Cineus, 81, was also captivated by the music. He was on his way to visit a cousin in Brooklyn when he heard the auditions. He stopped and cheered on the musicians, at times clapping and stomping his feet.
“You have great artists in New York, and I love it,” Mr. Cineus said with a smile.
Not everyone who passed the makeshift stage was a willing listener. Some passers-by never looked up from their phones. Others had earbuds in, glanced at the performers and kept moving.
The musicians knew what they were up against.
Mr. Jusdanis and Mr. Zavodsky were already street performers, including at subway stations. Mr. Jusdanis, who previously performed in New Orleans, met Mr. Zavodsky in Washington Square Park in 2022. He said they loved playing at the Times Square subway stop because of its high ceilings and general vibe. They have drawn crowds there who stayed to listen and dance.
“I’d say my experience in New Orleans is that people will fairly readily surrender themselves to the moment of dancing with music,” Mr. Jusdanis said. “For New Yorkers, it takes a little bit more to get them to that place. And so when we do it’s a big honor, but it’s also harder work.”
Performing underground also has its challenges.
In February, a Music Under New York cellist was attacked during rush hour. A woman was caught on video grabbing the performer’s metal water bottle and hitting him in the back of the head with it.
“This marks the second attack I’ve endured in less than a year while performing for New Yorkers in subway stations,” the musician, Iain S. Forrest, who goes by Eyeglass, wrote in a social media post, adding: “I don’t think I can do this anymore. I’m suspending subway performances indefinitely.”
Mr. Forrest said in a recent interview that he had since returned to performing in the subway system, but only at the Union Square and Penn Station stops, because each has a Police Department transit bureau on site.
Mr. Jusdanis recalled an intoxicated man who became aggressive during a New Thousand subway performance before the police quickly escorted him away.
“We’ve been pretty lucky,” Mr. Jusdanis said. “But I often wonder if I was a woman, if I was a smaller person, if I wasn’t white, would I be hassled more? And I think the answer is yes.”
Joya Bravo, a performer turned judge who started playing the violin at 9 years old, has had her fair share of skirmishes. She said that people with mental illnesses had sometimes called her names, including racial slurs.
“Every day there is a challenge, and it’s kind of a beautiful thing because it helps you to develop a very thick skin and an ability to perform and be great,” said Ms. Bravo, who was born in New York and learned to play the violin in Georgia. Her favorite stations to perform in are 34th Street-Herald Square, Union Square and Jay Street-MetroTech.
“I’ve seen beautiful things and terrible things in the subway, and it’s all shaped me,” she said.
Ms. Bravo initially resisted joining the M.T.A. program but changed her mind after being arrested for using speakers that were too loud and for selling CDs. She joined Music Under New York in 2018.
“The police protect us and M.T.A. protects us,” she said of the program.
“We’re not worried or skittish about being moved by the police,” she said. “We’re able to kind of plant and have our merch and have our performance and our presence really felt properly,” she said.
The program has more than 350 performers, and schedules more than 7,500 performances in the transit system each year. The M.T.A. announced last week that New Thousand was among the 28 performers accepted this year.
“Street performance just livens our daily lives,” Mr. Jusdanis said. He noted that the performances are free to listeners with no barriers to entry. “It can be a unifying and joyful experience.”