BART seeks musicians for in "Bach in the Subways" to celebrate composer's 339th birthday
BART invites local musicians to participate in its "Bach in the Subways" program, beginning Thursday and ending on the 339-year anniversary of the German composer's birth March 31.
This year's event began at 4 p.m. Thursday at the downtown Berkeley station, where Junior Bach kids played violin, piano, recorder and cello under the rotunda. Last year, seven groups participated but there's room for more. Musicians of any age still have time to participate.
"We are paying close attention to any requests that come in," BART spokesperson Anna Duckworth said.
The coming and going of trains throughout the system is a perfect metaphor for Johann Sebastian Bach's use of musical counterpoint, when two or more similar sounding musical lines are played together along independent rhythms.
"There's this special face that people get when they start playing Bach, I call it Bach Face, and I think his music has an uncanny capacity to draw people in and connect them unlike no other composer," said New York musician Dale Henderson, who started playing alone in the subway in 2010.
Yang Yang and her 8-year-old twin daughters arrived early at the station to set everything up for their big day.
"It's the first day of BART's 'Bach in the Subway' series," Yang's daughter said, as her fingers danced over the keys of her instrument. "Playing my inventions at the subway makes me feel very encouraged because I love playing music."
"I feel very happy and very excited and I thank BART for organizing this event because this gives my kids opportunities to show their talent in front of so many people."
Even during the busy evening commute, some riders slowed down to enjoy the musical journey, including Cam Nguyen, who remarked, "I think this is lovely. It made me pause and it made me think, I don't want to take the train just yet."
Today, the Bach in the Subways program has grown into musicians playing Bach in public spaces, like subway stations, in 150 cities across 40 countries.
"Suddenly, classical musicians get to perform without any of the formal trappings of a classical music setting. The principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic has joined us a bunch of times. It's just a very pure way to connect with the audience," Henderson said.
There is no tipping involved. Travelers through the Bay Area can listen to the music in the free areas of select stations. A regularly updated performance schedule can be found at bachinthesubways.org/san-francisco/.
To perform at a station, musicians must first register at bachinthesubways.org/register-a-performance/ and obtain a free Expressive Activity Permit from BART through bartca.portal.opengov.com.
