December 18, 2018
Make Music Winter!
Winter Is Coming
Winter Is ComingMake Music Winter is right around the corner, with 50+ participatory, mobile events setting out across the country on Friday, December 21.
And then warm up your singing voice, your bell-ringing hands, your guitar amps, and your creative juices to Make Music next week at a Winter event near you!
October 25, 2018
Announcing 40 Make Music Winter Parades
We are excited to announce the first 40 participatory, mobile events for Make Music Winter on Friday, December 21, taking place in 22 cities across the country.
Get ready to make music on December 21 if there’s an event near you… and if there isn’t, maybe you should set one up! Visit makemusicwinter.org for ideas, then email us to get started.
October 3, 2018
Winter Is Coming!
After years of spontaneous musical merriment on June 21, we are thrilled to bring the spirit of Make Music Day to December 21, the winter solstice.
For Make Music Winter, music can pop up anywhere. Rounding the corner, you may see a herd of electric guitarists, a choir of medieval singers, or a percussive Puerto Rican parranda coming down the street. Ingenious musical parades for iPhones, hand bells, bicycles, trombones, and boomboxes have delighted audiences since New York City began celebrating Make Music Winter in 2011.
Whatever your wintertime musical dreams, anything is possible. And all of it is free, joyful, and profoundly participatory.
Check out our new Make Music Winter section for the full details, and learn how to create your own mobile, participatory Make Music Winter event!
June 19, 2018
Streaming Concerts on June 21
Make Music Day is best experienced live. But if find yourself somewhere without live music on Thursday, we have collected nine unique streaming events to check out!
Live-streamed Make Music Day projects include a Verdi performance at the Sydney Opera House, 30 School of Rock locations simultaneously performing David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel, an online festival from Ultimate Guitar, streaming video from a “carpool karaoke,” and much more from around the world.
Click here for selected streaming highlights from Make Music Day.
June 19, 2018
#makemusicday
If you’re posting about Make Music Day on social media, we want to see it and help spread your message!
Please use the hashtag #makemusicday across media platforms, along with any local hashtag your city may be using. Over the next few days we will be watching for the hashtag and reposting.
June 19, 2018
Make Music Country of the Week: Australia
On Thursday, the Australian Music Association launches Australia’s first nationwide Make Music Day celebration!
Partners including City and State governments, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and local organizers are coming together for more than 70 events around the country, in a wide range of settings and genres.
Whether recording their version of “Waltzing Matilda,” taking a free Hammond Organ lesson, or joining a community Steelband performance, Make Music Australia participants are finding special musical ways to celebrate the (winter) solstice on June 21.
Visit the Make Music Australia website!
June 16, 2018
35+ Landmarks Across the U.S. Shining Orange for Make Music Day
For the second year, dozens of iconic buildings and landmarks around the country will turn orange in honor of Make Music Day!
Eight bridges, four City Halls, and new landmarks including Chicago’s Navy Pier, Philadelphia’s Liberty Place, and Long Beach’s Convention Center will all participate by turning orange – evoking the sun, the start of summer, and the Make Music Day logo – on June 21 or the evening before.
Click here for the complete list!
June 16, 2018
Making Music at the M
Another unusual landmark joins Make Music Day this year in the small Wisconsin town of Platteville.
At June 21 on the Platte Mount M — the largest letter “M” in the world — bucket drummers, a drum circle, and junkyard percussion ensembles will play on each of the M’s 266 whitewashed granite steps, directed by Nancy Fairchild, the founder of Make Music Platteville. Everyone is invited and the local public library is even sponsoring a “make and take time” where children can make a percussion instrument to bring to the event!
See Platteville’s full program on their website.
June 16, 2018
Nationwide Bucket Drumming
It’s not just Platteville. People in cities around the country will come outside next week on Make Music Day for special bucket drumming workshops.
In 27 cities, all percussionists who attend – kids and adults, professionals and first-timers – will be handed a pair of drum sticks generously donated by Vic Firth and invited to make music together. The events will range from structured classes to free-flowing bucket drumming circles, according to the concept of each local organizer.
Explore the bucket drumming events!
June 16, 2018
Make Music City of the Week: Liberty
Liberty, Missouri is another small town (population 30,000) with an outsized Make Music Day celebration.
Led by the Liberty Arts Commission, next week’s third annual Make Music Liberty features over 50 performances of all kinds including a bagpiper, a hammered dulcimer ensemble, an Elvis impersonator, and a 10 hour “all kids” musical extravaganza at the Corbin Theatre Company.
Visit their website for full details!