MTA Music Under New York (MTA MUSIC) celebrates the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a series of special performances that will be streamed online, a first for MTA MUSIC presentations, thanks to a collaboration with Lincoln Center. 

MTA MUSIC will present a selection of Mozart’s repertoire through performances by West Village Quartet (strings), Leah Coloff (cello), Luellen Abdoo (violin), Emily Hopkins (harp), Jim Graseck (violin) and Susan Keser (violin) on Friday, July 22. These performances kick off five weeks of Lincoln Center’s renowned Mostly Mozart Festival, which is celebrating its 50^th season. 

Performances will take place concurrently from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fulton Center, Times Sq-42 St and the new TurnStyle retail space at 59 St-Columbus Circle. All three locations are major transfer points within the New York City Transit subway system, providing several opportunities for MTA customers and visitors from around the world to intimately experience Mozart’s music across a variety of instruments and spaces. 

“It is terrific that you can go into the subway and hear a beloved composer such as Mozart while you’re on your way to work or just enjoying this city,” said Sandra Bloodworth, Director of MTA Arts & Design. “This reminds us of the wonderful place that New York is, that you can hear Mozart as you travel without buying a concert ticket or even taking a detour on your commute. We thank Lincoln Center for this opportunity to show our appreciation for Mozart and help us share it online for Mozart fans around the world who cannot come to see us in person.” 

"We are very excited to collaborate with the MTA to bring the sublime and timeless music of Mozart to New Yorkers across our great city," said Jane Moss, Lincoln Center's Ehrenkranz Artistic Director. "As we embark on the 50th anniversary season of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, this collaboration is a wonderful celebration of Mozart’s artistic genius, and expansion of the festival's ethos of access and musical pleasure." 

MTA Arts & Design, which provides riders of the nation’s largest public transportation system with visual and performing arts, presents musical performances in the subway system and commuter rail network through Music Under New York. MTA MUSIC, now in its 29^th year, has a longstanding tradition of collaboration with New York cultural institutions of note, the most recent being a series of musical performances with Jazz at Lincoln Center to honor the legacy of Billy Strayhorn, composer of the jazz standard “Take the A Train,” on the centennial anniversary of his birth last November. 

For the day of Mozart performances, each MTA MUSIC performer will play a two-hour set for a total of six MTA MUSIC performances at the three subway stations. A free livestream at the Fulton Center location will be hosted on Lincoln Center’s Facebook page at facebook.com/LincolnCenterNYC. Fulton Center, NYC Transit’s newly open transit hub and among NYCT’s most technologically advanced stations, also hosts installations from MTA Arts & Design’s new digital arts program on its 52 digital screens, offers free Wi-Fi and houses the award-winning Arts & Design-commissioned artwork “Sky Reflector-Net.” 

Brief biographies of the MTA MUSIC performers in the day’s presentations are available in a separate document with this release. For more information on other events in this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival, visit MostlyMozart.org. For more information on MTA MUSIC, including a list of all performers in the roster, visit the Music Under New York website.

The programming schedule on July 22 is as follows (all times are estimates):
Fulton Center
10 a.m. - noon       West Village Quartet, string quartet
Noon - 2 p.m.        Jim Graseck, violin

Times Sq-42 St  (across from  platform)
10 a.m. - noon       Susan Keser, violin
Noon - 2 p.m.        Emily Hopkins, harp

TurnStyle at 59 St-Columbus Circle  (57th Street entrance)
10 a.m. - noon       Leah Coloff, cello
Noon - 2 p.m.        Luellen Abdoo, violin

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About Music Under New York (MTA MUSIC)
Through Music Under New York, more than 350 individual performers and ensembles participate in more than 7,500 performances in approximately 30 locations throughout the transit system annually. A variety of performers entertain the public, such as classical strings, jazz ensembles, world music bands, folk, a cappella groups, singer-songwriters and more, playing instruments ranging from Gambian kora, Korean drum, West Indian steel drums, Andean pipes, cello, Celtic and baroque harps to guitars, violins, hammered dulcimers and musical saws.

About MTA Arts & Design
MTA Arts & Design (A&D) encourages the use of mass transit in the metropolitan New York area by providing visual and performing arts throughout the transit system. The Percent for Art program is one of the largest and most diverse collections of public art in the world, with more than 300 commissioned works by accomplished, mid-career and emerging artists. A&D also produces award-winning graphic art, photography installations, digital art, Music Under New York, Poetry in Motion, special events and more. A&D serves more than 8.7 million people who ride Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses, subways and commuter railroads daily, and strives to create meaningful connections between sites, neighborhoods, and people through artwork and performances that engage our diverse ridership. Visit mta.info/art.

About Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, one of the world’s major music festivals and a beloved summer tradition in New York, celebrates its 50th season with events taking place across Lincoln Center July 22–August 27, 2016. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 16 series, festivals, and programs including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, Legends at Lincoln Center: The Performing Arts Hall of Fame, Lincoln Center at the Movies, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is celebrating 40 years enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, visit lincolncenter.org or mostlymozart.org.