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A new month-long challenge is giving New Yorkers a taste of Broadway while the Great White Way remains closed through Labor Day.
As part of Time Out’s recently launched Love Local campaign, we’re partnering with the Times Square Alliance on Songs for Our City, a songwriting challenge that will commission new original music from Broadway performers and composers directly responding to our current crisis. Get ready for some amazing, brand-new, timely music.
Twenty-seven artists will be sharing their songs during a series of free, livestreamed concerts this June, including Alice Ripley, Ethan Slater, Rob Rokicki and more. Each concert will also double as a charity for one of our two current Love Local beneficiaries: BC/EFA’s Covid-19 Emergency Assistance Fund. All participants will receive a stipend from the Times Square Alliance, and the finalists will receive additional cash prizes. The series will culminated in a finale on June 21 that will be included in the Make Music New York festival.
The participants will be previous performers from the Times Square Alliance’s Broadway Buskers program, an annual series of free concerts on Times Square’s pedestrian plazas.
“As the entity responsible for taking care of and celebrating the Theater District, this is a symbolic and simple way for us to continue to showcase and support Broadway performers who create their own original work throughout June,” said Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance.
Want to catch the concerts yourself? You can head to our Facebook page on Tuesday and Wednesday nights during June where we’ll be sharing the Times Square Alliance livestream. (The stream will also be live at TSQ.org/Songs) The concerts will be streamed live at 7:05pm, immediately following the collective applause for essential workers. You can also follow along using the hashtag #CitySongs.
PARTICIPANTS
Leslie Becker
Sam Carner, Derek Gregor, and Selda Sahin
Jaime Cepero
Lauren Elder
Drew Gasparini
John Arthur Greene
F Michael Haynie
Marcus Paul James
Donnie Kehr
John Krause
Janet Krupin
Molly and the Memphis Thunder
Anthony Norman
Alexander Sage Oyen
Alice Ripley
Rob Rokicki
Jennifer Sánchez
Max Sangerman
Heath Saunders
Dru Serkes
Ethan Slater
Starbird & the Phoenix
Will Taylor
Will Van Dyke & Jeff Talbott
Joel Waggoner
Mike Wartella
Tim Young
SCHEDULE All concerts will begin at 7:05pm
4-5 participants will perform each night
Tuesday, June 2nd
Wednesday, June 3rd
Tuesday, June 9th
Wednesday, June 10th
Tuesday, June 16th
Wednesday, June 17th
Final Concert: Sunday, June 21st
The participant with the most votes in each preliminary concert will perform again in the final concert
*performer schedule and lineup subject to change