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<\/p>\nCellist Leo Zhang has performed for more people than some musicians may ever see in their lifetime.<\/p>\n
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He does it with easy expertise, his fingers dancing across the cello in downtown\u00a0Toronto\u00a0on a Thursday afternoon. But his stage doesn\u2019t have a spotlight or curtains or rows of seats. Most of the time, it isn\u2019t even above ground.<\/p>\n
His stage is a subway station, where he\u2019s performed for nearly 30 years. He plays multiple times a week, with commuters rushing past him and occasionally dropping a compliment or a couple of coins, train cars screeching to a halt just metres away, his music periodically accompanied by the overhead blare of a staticky announcement.<\/p>\n
Still, he can\u2019t seem to get enough. He owes a lot to the busking scene in Toronto\u2019s subway system \u2014 the end of his performance anxiety, numerous career opportunities and best of all, \u201cjoy to share with the world,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt feels surreal because it feels like music is connected with the world. With the world going crazy, people having a good day or bad day, what I can do is bring that energy to heal the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhang is among the 89 musicians who perform across 29\u00a0Toronto\u00a0Transit Commission subway stations in a program dating back more than 45 years. TTC artists are chosen through an audition process every three years, and musicians like Zhang say they perform amid the commuter chaos in the hopes of brightening someone\u2019s day.<\/p>\n
Zhang has been a licensed TTC musician since 1997. He first got the idea when he was in high school and was feeling nervous in his performing arts program, and he encountered a violinist at a subway station who inspired him to give it a shot.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPlaying in front of strangers helped me get over my stage fright, and I kept on going,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Performing underground opened up an entire world for him. He regularly plays weddings and special events thanks to people who found him underground, and in 2018 he even won a TTC contest that saw him record a song with Universal Music Canada. His song, \u201cCancion,\u201d was released on Apple Music, which he calls \u201ca huge accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like every day I try to use the TTC as a platform, as a performance, as a stage, entertaining hundreds and thousands of daily commuters every day,\u201d says Zhang.<\/p>\n
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Commuters on the TTC might also run across Benji Crane, a singer who plays guitar and violin. Performing at Dundas West station on a Tuesday afternoon, he sees riders pass by and one even stops and joins in for the chorus of \u201cShallow\u201d by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, which makes Crane smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just this instinctual draw to want to perform, like I\u2019m bound to it,\u201d says Crane, who\u2019s been performing at subway stations since 2019. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing else I\u2019d rather do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He makes a solid income busking on the TTC, but it\u2019s about more than just money, he says. He likes to think that his music can cheer people up, or that his songs can evoke a memory in someone.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes a little kid will drag their parents over and want to stand and listen. It\u2019s just a nice reminder that, yes, I am adding value to the space around me,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m giving people something to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Those kinds of interactions are the highlight of Charmie Deller\u2019s subway station performances. Deller, a singer and guitarist, has been busking for more than half her life, starting at the Scarborough Town Centre mall when she was 15. She became a licensed TTC performer almost 10 years ago and hasn\u2019t looked back since.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still work, too. Sometimes you are happy to go and sometimes you\u2019re dragging your feet to go, but when I get there, because I genuinely love singing, I can get lost in my shift,\u201d she says, adding it was through busking that she was connected to Nelly Furtado, with whom she later got to perform and write.<\/p>\n
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Her interactions with members of the public \u2014 whether it\u2019s a passing smile, a compliment or a conversation \u2014 always boost her confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me feel like I was meant to be there at that exact time that I was there,\u201d says Deller.<\/p>\n
Even those moments when commuters \u201csee you as a fly on the wall\u201d make it worth it, she adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could sing to a colony of ants and feel like I\u2019m meant to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
After nearly three decades of performing in the subway, Leo Zhang now has a repertoire of thousands of songs, he says. Hearing his mastery of the cello, one might think they\u2019re in a concert hall or the pit of a Broadway musical \u2014 not Bloor-Yonge subway station.<\/p>\n
Zhang says he always becomes immersed in his performances, and sometimes when he opens his eyes and looks up from his instrument, there\u2019s a crowd of people surrounding him, crying, dancing, smiling.<\/p>\n
He can\u2019t imagine a world where he isn\u2019t playing cello on the TTC, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as I can play music, I will always audition for the licence,\u201d says Zhang. \u201cEven if my concert tours or music career is taking a new height, I\u2019ll still come out and play because it\u2019s just one of my joys.\u201d<\/p>\n
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