NYC Subway Performers Collaborate to Form First 'Wi-Fi Orchestra'

NYC Subway Performers Collaborate to Form First 'Wi-Fi Orchestra'

If you have ever visited The Big Apple, you know that it's not unusual to see great underground performances in the city's subways stations. But director Chris Shimojima wanted to take the art of subway music to the next level. He arranged a live music experiment with 11 subway performers at nine subway stations. Russian composer Lev Zhurbin, who also goes by the name Ljova, wrote a piece called "Signal Strength" for the musicians to perform simultaneously thanks to the wonderful, free Wi-Fi at the selected stops. As seen in a YouTube video, the two-hour setup itself was impressive, as various musicians set up their instruments along with a computer and headphones provided by the director.   

Then Ljova conducted the 11 different musicians remotely from New York City's Bryant Park using multiple laptops and Skype. It took eight takes to get it right thanks to a few technical hiccups with the Internet connections.
 
Folks on YouTube are blown away by the underground symphony, and one person dubbed it "NYC's first Wi-Fi orchestra." The full song has been posted to a Sound Cloud page for your listening pleasure.