Coming soon to a subway platform near you: an insect goddess, a flamenco guitarist and a beatboxer who plays rap music on the flute.
Introducing 21 new sub way stars – musicians who recently won MTA auditions to perform for straphangers, part of the annual Music Under New York program.
“I’m the insect god dess that’s come to lift everybody out of their boring day!” announced Meghan McGeary, who kicked off the 20th year of the program by singing and playing drums in the rock-opera duo Dagmar 2.
Wearing a gold bustier and matching high heeled boots, an aviator cap with goggles and a gold- trimmed set of green mesh wings, McGeary sang a quirky song about a guy who can’t get out of bed in the morning – and the “insect goddess who plunges from the ether to rescue him.”
The bands play for cash – some say they can net $1 a minute – and the chance to be discovered by some passing person of influence.
Case in point: Clark Schubach, 65, a senior managing director at Bear Stearns, stopped to buy a CD from the colorful pair at Grand Central Station yesterday morning. “I have some friends in the music industry and perhaps I can help them if I like what I hear,” he said. “Sometimes you stumble into a lucky day. Maybe this is theirs.”
Flute beatboxer Greg Pattillo turned heads with his unusual use of the classical instrument, which he uses to play everything from Sesame Street to raps like Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Life. “Flute has such negative connotations,” he lamented. “I’m out to make flute cool again.”
The 21 winners were whittled down from 500 who sent tapes to MTA officials. Seventy finalists auditioned before a panel of MTA officials and fellow musicians.
The winners are allowed to perform in the subways for life, including selling their CDs. They include a country singer, Japanese tap dancers, a man who plays the kora, a West African stringed instrument, and a duo that plays the erhu, a Chinese stringed instrument.