December 2, 2025
Make Music Winter on Dec. 21!
We are thrilled to announce this year’s lineup for Make Music Winter: 15 cities with over 40 free, participatory parades and performances on Sunday, December 21!
- Nine winter parades in New York NY take over the city’s most iconic locations, from an immersive soundwalk on The High Line to a Hallelujah chorus at Grand Central, and from a parranda in the Bronx to an Appalachian flat-footing parade in Brooklyn.
- Chattanooga TN uses a passport to guide participants through the city’s musical landscape, from Christmas music at five churches to a titillating “pole ballet” at Scenic City Burlesque.
- Montclair NJ celebrates the season with Phil Kline’s classic boombox parade Unsilent Night, and a participatory jam of protest songs called The World Turned Upside Down
- Salem OR‘s “Yule Make Music” features an afternoon bell parade with holiday songs, Holiday Trivia with live musicians performing some of the clues, and a downtown band showcase.
- Rhythm Band Instruments partners for the sixth year, providing free hand bells and hand percussion for events in Germantown (TN), Macon (GA), Muskogee (OK), and New York (NY).
- And Slovenia’s Flight Ukulele joins Make Music Winter for the second year, donating ukuleles for events in Big Bear (CA) and Ossining (NY).
Of course there is much more, from pop-up jam parades to musical bar crawls to open mics. Visit makemusicwinter.org for the complete schedule!
December 2, 2025
Partner Spotlight: A Global Choral Celebration of Sir David Attenborough’s 100th Birthday
The renowned naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough turns 100 next year. To mark the occasion, British composer Pete Wyer – along with colleagues Brian Eno and Pete Townshend – is organizing a birthday concert on May 9, 2026 for singers everywhere to join, with a new choral work on environmental themes called Natural World.
Participants are invited to join a “synchronized headphone choir” (a genre that Wyer has pioneered for Make Music Day), or submit a video in advance.
If you are interested in joining, as an individual or a choir, click here for details!
November 21, 2025
Support Make Music Day: grassroots music with a global impact
As 2025 comes to an end, we are thankful for all the supporters and partners who have made this a record-breaking year for Make Music Day.
- On June 21, 2025, Make Music Day featured over 5,471 concerts in the U.S., an all-time high, across 147 cities from coast to coast.
- The Make Music Alliance provided participants with 1,260 pairs of drumsticks, 80 pairs of mallets, 120 ukuleles, and 2,340 hand percussion instruments – all for free, so that anyone could participate.
- Roughly half a million people joined as performers, audience members, teachers and students.
- And thousands more concerts took place in Australia, Brazil, China, Cyprus, Ghana, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey, and the UK, in events all established through the Make Music Alliance.
While political forces pull communities and countries apart, Make Music Day continues to bring people together, across the ocean or across the street, to create connections and spread joy.
If you have enjoyed Make Music Day in any way – as a performer, host, or listener – or just love the concept, we invite you support the Make Music Alliance, the nonprofit organization that brings this celebration to the world.
Please consider a contribution to keep it going into 2026! Any amount, large or small, is very much appreciated.
November 21, 2025
A Not-So-Silent Night
Make Music Winter returns on Sunday December 21, with joyful, mobile events across the country that turn audiences into music-makers.
Stay tuned for the full schedule announcement on December 1!
November 21, 2025
Nonprofit Spotlight: Musicians for Overdose Prevention
Nearly 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses – and every one of them had a favorite song, a favorite band, a favorite t-shirt.
This coming year, Musicians for Overdose Prevention is inviting bands, venues, and festivals around the country to host “100,000 T-Shirt Memorial” events. Fans bring a music t-shirt in honor of someone lost to overdose, and MOP will send the venue free naloxone (the overdose reversal medication) to distribute during the show, and help promote your event to local media.
Email John Kennedy at 505050john@gmail.com if you’d like to host a T-shirt memorial event. To order free naloxone for your tour or venue, fill out this form.
October 1, 2025
Make Music City of the Week: Salem OR
Oregon’s Make Music Salem celebrated its 10th year this June 21, with 252 performances at 68 locations – an astounding number for a city of 180,000!
Nearly every block downtown was filled with music – with teenage performers from the RiverCity Rock Star Academy, rock and punk bands from KMUZ, and a silent disco with five DJs at Riverfront Park – while nearly every genre was represented somewhere in the city. And in true Make Music Day fashion, beginning musicians could join in on a ukulele jam session, a harmonica giveaway, or a “found sound” instrument alley.
Make Music Salem was founded by small business owner Mark Green and his family. Over the years, Mark helped start up other Make Music events around Oregon, and joined the Make Music Alliance board to support the event’s national growth.
Tragically, Mark passed away in August. We are remembering Mark this year, and celebrating Make Music Salem as just one way his legacy of joyful community service lives on.
October 1, 2025
Make Music Winter on Sunday December 21!
Make Music Day’s winter counterpart returns on Sunday, December 21!
Make Music Winter is a joyful, free outdoor musical festivity, celebrated since 2011 on the winter solstice, and reaching 20+ U.S. cities last year.
What makes Make Music Winter unique is its focus on musical parades that anyone can join, from a procession of strolling electric guitarists, to a roving mob of kazoo players. These mobile events create a memorable spectacle all over town, and keep participants warm when the weather is cold.
On December 21, Make Music Winter returns with mobile events that turn audiences into music-makers, organized through our network of Make Music chapters and free for all to join!
The full schedule will be announced in November. Stay tuned!
July 3, 2025
Thank you to our national sponsors!
July 3, 2025
Global Video Highlights
Make Music, Make Friends connected school children from Australia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, U.K., and the U.S. on Make Music Day, sharing videos of their performances with each other. Watch the Full Playlist
#MySongIsYourSong invited songwriters from around the world to learn a song by another artist, and hear theirs covered in return. Watch the Full Playlist
Critical Impact brought together school bands across the U.S. to play a powerful new piece by composer Brian Balmages, in a salute to music education. Watch the Full Playlist
July 3, 2025
Make Music Day – thank you!
Congratulations to all who took part in last month’s Make Music Day!
We’ve crunched the numbers, and a stunning 5,453 free music-making events took place in the U.S. on June 21 – a new record – along with performances by thousands more musicians in countries around the world who celebrated the day.
Check out 227 press clips about Make Music Day 2025, from media outlets in 87 U.S. cities, to learn about events you may have missed!