May 8, 2021
Make Music Artist of the Week: Mark Stewart
Guitarist Mark Stewart, best known as Paul Simon's music director and a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, is a frequent Make Music Day participant, marching in New York's Tilted Axes electric guitar parade or leading a Mass Appeal guitar play-along in Union Square.
But Mark has a parallel passion as an instrument builder, using found objects to design instruments that everyone can play. Over a video call with Make Music Day organizers in January, he shared examples of his work including the Whirlycopter, Big Boing, the Schonbeck collection he's assembled at Mass MoCA, and many more.
Already Mark's work has inspired several new Make Music Day projects, including one coming this summer to Kansas City!
May 8, 2021
Song Swaps: #MySongIsYourSong and Global Folk Challenge
Songwriters and composers of all kinds are invited to join Make Music Day's 2nd annual global song swap, called #MySongIsYourSong.
Sign up to learn and perform a song by another artist, and hear one of your original songs covered in return! Just register by May 31st at makemusicday.org/songswap. Partners will be carefully matched and introduced the first week of June, then will share their video performances on June 21.
Don't write your own music? Don't feel left out! You're invited to join the Global Folk Challenge and share a folk song from your country, and in exchange, learn and perform a different folk song submitted by another participating musician. Sign up by May 14th at makemusicday.co.uk/global-folk-challenge.
April 30, 2021
Make Music State of the Week: New Mexico
Just before his retirement last year, Senator Tom Udall learned about Make Music Day and decided it was high time that New Mexico joined the party.
Thanks to outreach from his office, word began to spread and Make Music Las Cruces launched in 2020. This year, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Gallup are all starting new Make Music celebrations – not to mention neighboring El Paso TX – putting over half of the state’s population within the Make Music Day footprint.
Musicians from this ancient and enchanting state will be featured in many Make Music Day projects this year – stay tuned!
April 30, 2021
Young Composers Contest
For the second year, the Make Music Alliance is excited to offer a composition contest for composers aged 13-21.
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre of May 31 – June 1, 1921, young composers are invited to write a song for an overdubbed, a cappella baritone singer, using text from a first-hand account of the massacre by B.C. Franklin.
A panel of distinguished judges, including composers Hiroya Miura and Trevor Weston, composer/conductor Francisco Núñez, and soprano Talise Trevigne, will provide feedback and select three winning pieces, which will be professionally recorded by baritone Christopher Herbert and released online for Make Music Day on June 21st. Winning composers will also receive a free copy of Finale music notation software.
The submission deadline is May 31st – full details are available on our website.
(Are you over 21? Be a mentor and share the contest with students and young friends!)
April 30, 2021
Make Music Now in 90+ U.S. Cities
After the isolation and stress of the last year, we can’t wait to get back together and make music again… and we are not alone!
A record 90+ U.S. cities have announced they are celebrating Make Music Day on a large scale in 2021, from Houston to Gig Harbor and everything in between.
New chapters have launched this year in Alabama, California, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, bringing the holiday to even more of the country, and joining over 1,000 international Make Music cities.
December 18, 2020
Winter is here! Make Music on Monday
Make Music Winter is almost here, with ten new cities joining to provide a musical winter solstice on Monday, December 21!
Check out the full schedule at to find new Window Serenades for isolated elderly people in Ventura County CA and Elk Grove CA, a “Soul Food Christmas” performance in Denver CO, a pop up holiday performance in Bellevue TN, and 30+ more socially-distanced and virtual events around the country to ring in the season.
Just visit makemusicwinter.org, and then join a music-making event near you!
December 3, 2020
Make Music Winter on December 21!
We are delighted to announce this year’s national schedule of 30+ free, participatory, and socially-distanced music events on the winter solstice, Monday, December 21!
Make Music Winter‘s outdoor celebrations, with participants spread out at a safe distance, are among the rare in-person events still viable this holiday season. Highlights include a world premiere choral sound installation at the New York Botanical Garden in New York, NY; musical processions in Montclair, NJ; a tractor-led musical parade in Columbia, SC; and sleigh bell and hand bell events in Land O’ Lakes, WI and Chequamegon Bay, WI.
Around the country, musicians will also share the joy of live music with isolated older adults through Window Serenades in Boston, MA, Hartford, CT, Milwaukee, WI, and Ossining, NY, bringing solo artists or small groups to play outside nursing home windows for those who request a song.
And in the virtual realm, musicians will stream a citywide performances of “Jingle Bells” in El Paso TX, perform a collaborative songwriter showcase in Portland, ME and Santa Fe, NM, enter music video contests in Hawai’i, and perform Beethoven piano sonatas in New York, NY.
Look for all of these, and many more, at makemusicwinter.org.
And then join a music-making event near you!
October 3, 2020
Winter Window Serenades
Window Serenades share the joy of live music with isolated elderly people, bringing solo musicians or small groups to play outside nursing home windows for those who request a song.
Created to provide safe, socially distanced performances for Make Music Day on June 21, Window Serenades are just as relevant for Make Music Winter, reaching those who are away from their families during the darkest days of the year.
We have created a new Window Serenades Handbook (pdf) to help plan a serenade near you. It’s an easy and enormously gratifying project.
Download the handbook and register your event here!
October 3, 2020
Citizens Band Radio
Your ensemble can be the talk of the town for Make Music Winter in a new project called Citizens Band Radio.
On December 21, each member of your band will ride shotgun in a slow procession of cars, listening to a local community radio station, sheet music taped to the dashboard. At the appointed time, the station will broadcast a piece from your band’s repertoire. Using the radio as a click track, band members will stick their horns, tambourines, amps, and other instruments out the car windows and give an unforgettable, synchronized performance for people on the street or stuck in traffic.
If you and your band are interested, we will help you make this happen. (You can also organize Citizens Band Radio events for musicians on boats, or playing from neighboring rooftops or balconies.)
Fill out this form and we will be in touch right away!
October 3, 2020
STARTING TONIGHT: Lift Every Vote!
Tonight, October 3rd, a new grassroots musical initiative called Lift Every Vote will launch across the country and will continue daily at sunset through Election Day, November 3rd.
Setting up on their doorsteps, out their windows, in a park or on a street corner, performers of all stripes will provide a daily inspiring reminder to get out the vote. We want you to participate!
The challenge is simple:
- PLAN a performance around sunset: Get your instrument, your band, your poem, your dance, your creativity READY!
- PICK your location: outdoors is best — but remember, mask-up and social distance; choose anywhere you feel comfortable.
- PERFORM: Play as if our lives depend on it!
- MOBILIZE: Encourage your audience to plan their vote.
- NOMINATE: Share your performance using #lifteveryvote. Tag your peers, friends, noise makers to do the same – and keep the challenge moving!
More information at LiftEveryVote2020.com.