By Olivia Scheck and Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producers
LINCOLN CENTER — Manhattan has long been a refuge for classical musicians, but the borough isn't exactly hospitable terrain for maestros with large instruments.
"The subway is the biggest challenge," Santino Lo, 22, explained before lugging his tubas into the downtown 1 train at Lincoln Center on Tuesday. "It'd be great if I could take cabs everywhere but I obviously can't afford to do that."
Lo has it especially bad, since he has to carry not one, but two tubas (one for solos, the other for orchestra concerts) from his home in Purchase, N.Y. to his job at the Mannes school of music on the Upper West Side.
But tubists aren't the only musicians who struggle to get around the borough.
Cellist Marika Hughes has grown accustomed to lugging around an instrument that's almost as big as she is since starting to play the cello in childhood. The Upper West Side-born musician, who attended Barnard and Juilliard, said the worst thing about carrying a big instrument around Manhattan is fielding corny jokes from fellow straphangers and pedestrians.
To deflect the unwanted interactions, Hughes has taped a handwritten note to the outside of her cello case, which reads: "It's not a big violin. There's no dead body. No I don't wish I played the flute."
"Rather than turn into a really mean, rude person, I refer them to the note," Hughes said after leaving a luthier, or string repairman, on West 54th Street.
Noted bassist Bill Crow, who lives Upstate but often commutes to a recording studio at the Associated Musicians of Greater New York Local 802 in Hell's Kitchen, said he prefers to avoid public transportation when travelling with his bass in the city.
"Now I have my own car, but when I lived in the Village I would ride around on a moped with my bass strapped to the back," Crow, 83, recalled.
While some might question how safe it is to drive a motor scooter while strapped to an instrument the size of a person, cellist Claire Bryant warned that carrying large instruments on foot can be dangerous too.
Bryant, 31, of Washington Heights, said she was getting off the subway at Columbus Circle during rush hour Tuesday morning when she tripped and then slid along the platform atop her cello.
"[It] nearly sent me into the train tracks," the Juilliard instructor said, noting that about 25 people rushed to her aid after the accident.
"[At least] I've never left it in the back of taxi," Bryant added, referring to the infamous incident in which renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma left a $2.5 million cello in the trunk of a yellow cab. That cello was returned.
As challenging as it may be to carry a cello or a tuba around New York City, pianist Colin Huggins, 33, may have it worse than anybody.
The Chinatown resident is the only Manhattan street artist who performs with a full size piano.
"It's hard to look classy when you have to bring an instrument with you," Huggins, who once lugged a piano from Midtown to City Hall, explained. "I could wear nice clothes but … you know, by the time I get there I look like I've been through a battle."
To pull off the feat, Huggins has placed a network of pianos around the borough, which he wheels to nearby parks and subway stations.
Even for musicians who play more portable instruments, traveling with them can require careful planning.
New Jersey musician Allison Lazor, 20, said she was considering accompanying a friend to a music store near Lincoln Center after auditioning at Juilliard on Tuesday, but decided against it since she was travelling with her tuba.
"I would go with her but soon it'll be rush hour," Lazor explained. "Maybe if I played the flute."
