The Met’s new exhibition Musical Bodies has turned the Fifth Avenue landmark into a full-body sound lab, pairing ancient rattles and Renaissance paintings with pop-culture relics and live performance. Curated by Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, the show gathers more than 130 objects spanning roughly 4,000 years to explore how instruments and human bodies shape identity and ritual. Visitors move through costume curiosities and immersive sound pieces that are meant not just to be seen, but to be heard and, ideally, felt in the bones.
The members’ preview and opening came with its own mini festival: percussionist Javier Diaz, flamenco dancer Cristina Candela with vocalist Barbara Martinez, and Beatbox House all performed, with the beatboxers even leading a lesson, according to amNewYork. The night drew sponsor Barbara Tober and a cross-genre crowd of artists and celebrities, including keyboard virtuoso Brockett Parsons and his circular PianoArc, Ghanaian coffinmaker Paa Joe, RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Nymphia Wind, finalist Plane Jane, and rocker Billy Squier, all working the galleries like a low-key downtown party that just happens to be inside The Met.
Objects That Blur Body And Instrument
The exhibition arranges instruments, paintings, costumes, and multimedia works into six thematic sections, with loans from institutions including the Musée de la musique and the Royal College of Music, according to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Star turns include Nam June Paik’s TV Cello, the PianoArc circular keyboard, one of Prince’s Love Symbol guitars, Liberace’s “piano keys” suit, and a Tom Ford ensemble worn by Zazie Beetz, all shown alongside ancient Egyptian rattles and Renaissance lira da braccio. The mix leans hard into the idea that sometimes it is hard to tell where the instrument ends and the body begins.
Curatorial Aim And Live Programming
“The quest for an answer has become an exploration of humanity through the lens of instruments,” curator Bradley Strauchen-Scherer said, positioning the show as a study of how music and bodies mirror belief, identity, and mortality, according to The Met. The museum frames Musical Bodies as experiential: large-scale projections and newly commissioned footage highlight beatboxing, body percussion, tap, and whistling by artists such as Beatbox House, whistler Molly Lewis, and tap legend Savion Glover, with workshops and performances scheduled to run alongside the show.
When To Go
Musical Bodies is on view at The Met Fifth Avenue from June 7 through September 27, 2026, in Gallery 199, and the museum has lined up a program of talks and activations across the summer, according to NY1. Expect rotating performances and occasional in-gallery activations that pull visitors directly into the show’s sound-based installations.
