ASPIRING ARTISTS shuffle about New York City seemingly stricken by Frank Sinatra’s hypnotic mantra: “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” If they can just stay in this cocoon long enough, they reason, their raw skill will one day transform into payable perfection. When the angry city collapses around them, they recite Frank’s little line, just hoping to survive.

But in a city of big-break-hopefuls surviving through cramped bars and musty theaters, some love their art so much they could care less if they play in pubs filled with drunken regulars and one-stall bathrooms. They make music for the sake of making music; because they must use their gifts whether they’re paid or not. Because they love to play.

Meredith Bogacz is such a person. Sometimes five times a week, she attends “sessions,” informal Irish folk music gatherings springing up at Irish pubs across the city. Participants bring their fiddles, accordions, guitars, whistles, or flutes.

Meredith grew up in Chicago and got her undergrad degree in art from Hillsdale College in Michigan, where she fell in love with Irish music. An Irish band (known as ceili bands) in the area needed a fiddler, so she volunteered. “I needed an excuse to play,” she said. While with that group she mostly played house parties, but those do not compare to the Irish scene in New York. It’s difficult to get into the music when “next door is the Amish farmer,” she said.

Classically trained since third grade, Meredith practices on average about four hours a day. She came to New York about a year ago to study sculpture, not music, at the New York Academy of Art. Why art? Partly because she’s “burned out” from years of classical music. Classical violin, with all its rules and rigid structure, can become oppressive. She uses the sessions to break free and have fun.

Unlike many young artists, “making it” doesn’t consume her. “The goal is to gain skills and not starve,” she said. “Sure, it’d be great to be a ‘someone’ in New York City, but with such a plethora of talented people in one place, that isn’t likely.” Right now she just wants to play: “As long as I can get some gigs on the side, I’d be happy.”