June 21, 2025
Celebrating 10 years of partnership with the NAMM Foundation
Make Music Day would never have gotten so big, so quickly, without the transformational support of NAMM and the NAMM Foundation, representing the generosity and philanthropy of the music products industry.
While the NAMM Foundation has supported the infrastructure behind Make Music Day, individual NAMM members such as Elixir Strings, Harman, PRS Guitars, Rhythm Band Instruments, Sweetwater, and Vic Firth have become core partners, donating instruments and promoting music-making for all on June 21.
This year we celebrate 10 years of NAMM’s partnership. Read more here.
Thank you, NAMM!
June 21, 2025
Selected Press Previews
- “‘Find joy’ at this massive free music event taking over Phoenix for 1 day only,” by Ed Masley, Arizona Republic
- “Make Music Day to feature dozens of free concerts by local artists throughout Connecticut,” by Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant
- “How a French holiday turned into a global music day, and which Texas cities are participating,” KTSM Austin
- “Worldwide Make Music Day coming June 21. Here are the Florida events,” by C.A. Bridges, Tallahassee Democrat
- “Make Music Day celebrates free, live music around Houston — and the world,” by Michael Hagerty, Houston Public Media
- “Make Music Madison adds Global Choir Project for 12th-annual celebration,” by Anna Hansen, Wisconsin State Journal
- “‘Make Music Day’ events add to Ann Arbor’s character and identity,” by Ana Longoria, WEMU
- “Wil Russoul on music, community and the festival that’s changing everything,” by Darnell Sue, Aberdeen Daily World
- “Musicians will play for free around town, and the world, on ‘Make Music Day’,” by Alysia Gray Painter, NBC 4 Los Angeles
- “Watch 70-plus concerts for free during San Jose’s Make Music Day,” by John Metcalfe, Bay Area News Group
Find more in our 2025 Press Archive
June 21, 2025
Make Music, Make Friends
For the third year, Make Music, Make Friends connected school children aged 7-13 around the world for Make Music Day, to share videos of their musical performances with each other.
38 teachers in Australia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand, Turkiye, and the US had their kids create a musical greeting video, shared it with schools from different countries, and had their students watch these musical messages this week in honor of Make Music Day.
June 21, 2025
Mass Appeal: Makey Makey
Makey Makey joins Make Music Day for the 4th time in 2025. Using this circuit board, plugged into a computer, performers of all levels can turn everyday objects into touchpads and use them to make music.
This year, Makey Makey is donating kits to Make Music chapters around the country and helping them make homemade giant floor pianos and other participatory “Mass Appeal” events and installations on June 21.
Thank you, Makey Makey!
June 17, 2025
Make Music State of the Week: New York
New York has been a proud part of the global Make Music Day since 2007, when New York City’s June 21 celebration began.
In 2025, with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Make Music Day is getting louder and stronger across the Empire State!
Check out global tabla master Samir Chatterjee at the inaugural Make Music Woodstock, join a full day of workshops and jam sessions at the new Make Music Wyoming County, play along with Suzuki strings, electronic percussion, wind bands, and a samba band in Troy, rock out in an underground “weir chamber” for the 11th annual Make Music Ossining, cross paths with a tugboat outfitted with a Wurlitzer organ and playing down the East River in NYC, and much, much more.
June 17, 2025
Let The Music Move You
The joy of music-making can show up anywhere on Make Music Day: out on the street, in a park… or behind the wheel of your car.
On June 21 from 12-4pm, Harman invites the public to step into a Cadillac parked outside the JBL Store in New York City, outfitted with a 19-speaker AKG Dolby Atmos sound system for a stunning immersive experience.
Inside the Cadillac, one at a time, guests will sit in the front seat and choose a song to sing, from a short playlist of Atmos-mastered songs. And sitting in the backseat will be 3 professional back-up singers, dressed to impress, who have learned the background vocal parts to each song and will be singing along!
All are welcome to join what will truly be the world’s best karaoke experience. Many thanks to Harman, a crucial supporter of Make Music Day for the last ten years, for sponsoring this event.
June 12, 2025
Make Music City of the Week: Ann Arbor
Three years ago, the innovative Ann Arbor District Library brought Make Music Day to their Michigan city of 120,000 – this year, it has grown by leaps and bounds!
Make Music Ann Arbor’s 56 confirmed events next Saturday include bands at the farmers market, on front porches, in art galleries, and inside a barn, while library branches are offering an array of interactive events: a modular synth workshop, folk song jam, brass band parade, and much more.
June 12, 2025
New for 2025: Taking Flight
On June 21, singers across the globe will join Taking Flight — an innovative choral experience led by Toronto’s Hugh’s Room Live, connecting communities through music.
At venues in Canada, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkiye, the U.K., and the U.S., members of the public will gather to learn a popular song in multi-part harmony. After this rehearsal, a global streaming broadcast will begin, where each choir will perform their song live, taking turns so that every participating country can watch every other country’s live performance on a large screen at the front of each room.
Taking inspiration from birds, whose songs transcend national boundaries, choral directors in each country have selected music on the theme of “Taking Flight.” The event will close with a collective rendition of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, sung by every group in harmony around the world.
Click here for full details and a link to the livestream!
June 12, 2025
Your Make Music Day Checklist
Make Music Day is next Saturday – it’s time to finalize your plans!
🔲 Register with your local Make Music chapter and confirm your plans
🔲 Or mark your calendar to join a participatory Circle Singing, Mass Appeal, Sousapalooza, Flowerpot Music, Roomful of Pianos, or String Together event near you
🔲 Promote your event with our poster generator and social media tiles, and use the hashtag #makemusicday
🔲 Go out on June 21 and make the city your stage!
June 8, 2025
Music for Everyone: Mass Appeal
Anyone is welcome to make music in public on June 21, and we mean truly anyone – even those who have never tried making music before, and even those who don’t own an instrument!
This year, Vic Firth and Rhythm Band Instruments have returned to sponsor three national percussion projects, where anyone can come and get a free instrument to play on Make Music Day. These are all part of our Mass Appeal initiative, which brings together people of all levels and ages to make music in large, single-instrument groups.
Vic Firth, setting the standard for percussion since its inception in 1963, is providing over 1,200 pairs of free drumsticks to 38 events around the country this year!
17 events will be bucket drumming sessions, ranging from structured classes to free-flowing bucket drumming circles, while another 21 drumstick events will include drum circles, drum-offs, and more.
To take part, all you need is a beat in your heart… and a pair of sticks.
Music on June 21 can come from anyone, anywhere, and just about anything.
As if to prove the point, celebrated composer Elliot Cole and percussionist Peter Ferry are once again organizing a series of music especially for Make Music Day, featuring an unlikely but beautiful percussion instrument – the flowerpot!
This year, 16 groups around the U.S. will come out to parks, fields, and plazas to performFlowerpot Music, a set of easy-to-learn musical games. Anyone can join the events – no experience required.
Vic Firth is sponsoring Flowerpot Music by providing 160 professional yarn-wrapped mallets free of charge, so that anyone can make a great sound on a flowerpot.
Thank you, Vic Firth!
In another beloved Make Music Day tradition, Rhythm Band Instruments, makers of the pitched hollow plastic tubes called Boomwhackers®, is donating percussion kits to 34 communities for participatory Mass Appeal percussion events – over 1,000 instruments in all, with a variety of Boomwhackers, egg shakers, and rhythm sticks to make music accessible to everyone.
Thank you, Rhythm Band Instruments!