The birthday boy. Image courtesy of Bach in the Subways.
The New York City-based Bach in the Subways organization is planning to celebrate Johann Sebastian Bach’s 341st birthday with free performances throughout the city’s transportation network. The nonprofit is inviting orchestras, choruses, trio, bands, and soloists to perform Bach in public spaces in NYC and elsewhere and to sign up at bachinthesubways.org/register-a-performance-2/ so that people know who’s playing what where. Artists are welcome to perform works by Bach between March 21 and March 31 anywhere on the NYC transit system; performances must be open and accessible to all, with no admission fee or other commercial transactions. Bach in the Subways started in 2010, when Dale Henderson was playing Bach Cello Suites in NYC subways—and getting positive reactions. Convinced that the decline in classical audiences was largely because many people never get a chance to hear this music live and up close, Henderson felt that experiencing Bach was more powerful in public settings with money removed from the equation. On Bach’s 330th birthday in 2015, thousands of musicians in 150 cities in 40 countries offered Bach’s music freely to the public in subway and train stations, on moving trains, on street corners, in cafés, malls, restaurants, zoos, and concerts open to all.
