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!
May 31, 2025
Make Music Partner of the Week: Sweetwater
We’d like to take a moment to thank Sweetwater Sound for its longstanding Make Music Day sponsorship!
Since 2016, Sweetwater has spread the word about Make Music Day to thousands of customers, and even organized Make Music Fort Wayne for several years, bringing bands and musical discovery to their Indiana hometown on the first day of summer.
Beginning tomorrow, Sweetwater is celebrating a week-long DrumFest with special sales and artist workshops. But whatever your instrument, Sweetwater continues to join its customers in celebrating Make Music Day, and stands by to ship any last-minute gear that may be needed for June 21.
May 31, 2025
Make Music City of the Week: San Antonio
For last year’s inaugural Make Music San Antonio, musical communities from hip hop to opera to mariachi came out to showcase their artistry in 40 free concerts, while every San Antonian got the chance to make music with drum circles, a sing-along, karaoke, and a special performance of Terry Riley’s “In C”. It was a spectacular debut, organized by the city’s Department of Arts & Culture and Texas Public Radio.
This year’s captivating program includes interactive workshops at the banks of the blossoming San Pedro Creek, over a dozen performances at the San Antonio Botanical Garden in partnership with Alamo City Arts, live music at historic Main Plaza, and performances from the Classical Music Institutes and OPERA San Antonio’s Young Artist Program.
More details at their website!
May 31, 2025
2nd Annual String Together: Free Events to Make Your Guitar Sing
One of the best and easiest ways to improve the sound of your guitar is putting on a fresh set of strings.
Come to any of the 115 participating “String Together” music stores on Make Music Day, and attend a free string-changing session that comes with a free set of acoustic guitar strings from Elixir Strings (for the first 12 registrants at each store). All are welcome, from complete newbies who have never changed their strings, to more experienced players looking for a few tips from a pro guitar tech.
63 stores are participating across the US, along with 20 stores in Germany, 13 in Ukraine, 9 in the UK, 6 in Italy, 3 in South Africa, and 1 in Poland, all thanks to Elixir Strings.
May 23, 2025
Make Music Partner of the Week: Levitt Foundation
Thank you to the Levitt Foundation for supporting Make Music Day!
We love Levitt’s mission, which is to strengthen the social fabric of America through the power of free, live music. Over the course of 2025, Levitt is supporting 650+ free outdoor concerts in more than 50 communities coast-to-coast, attracting people of all ages and backgrounds and fostering more equitable, healthy, and thriving communities.
Levitt recently announced a series of grants up to $120,000 to bring free outdoor concerts to communities across the country! Learn more and apply for a Levitt Music Series Grant by June 30th at levitt.org.
May 23, 2025
Announcing the 2025 Make Music Champions
We’re excited to announce our 2025 roster of Make Music Champions – thirteen talented artists from around the country who joined Make Music Day last year, and who love to share their passion for music all year long.
On our blog, you’ll find interviews with each new Champion: 2/14, Abigail Fierce, Ariah &, Arpa Martinez, Cat Crash, Isabella Paris, Jessica Maeve, Leah Wrenne, Matt Axton, Rowan Katz, Sierra Lynn, Tipa Tipo, and Wild Ire.
Stay tuned for news about their June 21st collaborations!
May 23, 2025
Fourteen Roomfuls of Pianos on Make Music Day
Pianists across the country will come together this Make Music Day to give free multi-piano performances in 14 local music stores, in a new partnership with the Music Teachers National Association!
For Roomful of Pianos, pianists of all ages and levels have the rare chance to perform together on up to eight pianos at the same time, on what is often a solitary instrument. Local music teacher associations and piano dealers are collaborating to choose repertoire, set the schedule, and unite the local piano community and the public.
View the Roomful of Pianos page for full details, and to learn how to join!