November 1, 2022
A Sneak Peek at Make Music Winter
Make Music Winter is just seven weeks away!
Among the dozens of projects in the works for Wednesday, December 21st, we are especially excited to present The Resonant Path in six cities this year. This initiative will ring in the winter solstice with a series of gongs spaced out along a walking path, played continuously by percussionists over the course of an hour and creating waves of sound as the audience walks past.
We will make a nationwide Make Music Winter announcement on November 8th, and it's not too late to add your own participatory event to the program! Just fill out this form if you are interested and we will get in touch right away.
September 19, 2022
Announcing Make Music Winter 2022!
Photo © 2021 Andrew D. Marks
The winter counterpart to Make Music Day returns on Wednesday, December 21!
Make Music Winter is a series of free, outdoor musical parades, taking place last year in 30+ U.S. cities. People of all ages, musical abilities, and backgrounds meet up to promenade and play participatory music for bells, electric guitars, voices, rewired children’s toys, and more.
It’s a joyful way to ring in the longest night of the year, and celebrate the end of 2022.
- If you’re interested in leading an event for Make Music Winter on December 21, just fill out this form. We will get back to you right away.
- For more ideas of what Make Music Winter can look like, visit makemusicwinter.org for photos, videos, and press coverage from prior years.
- Check out our handbooks for six popular Make Music Winter projects. Take these ideas and run with them in your own city, or use them as inspiration for something new!
September 19, 2022
A Look Back: MPTF on June 21
For the 8th straight year, the Music Performance Trust Fund supported dozens of special initiatives for Make Music Day in the U.S. on June 21, from flute choirs to Latin music sing-alongs, giving professional musicians the chance to mentor up-and-coming players while providing a high-quality concert to the public.
We thank the MPTF for supporting so much music, and send our congratulations on their upcoming 75th Anniversary celebration! Visit their website to learn more.
June 24, 2022
Thank you to our national sponsors!
We'd also like to give another shout-out to our national Make Music Day partners this year, with special thanks to the NAMM Foundation, without whom our work would not be possible.
June 24, 2022
Right Now: Sweetwater’s GearFest
If you've been inspired by Make Music Day to upgrade your gear and start making more music, our friends at Sweetwater Sound are hosting their annual GearFest today and tomorrow, at Sweetwater.com — check it out!
Since 2016, Sweetwater has been a crucial supporter and sponsor for Make Music Day, spreading the word to customers and even organizing Make Music Fort Wayne for several years. The company is renowned among musicians not only for great deals on music gear, but for being remarkably hands-on and personable.
Thank you to Sweetwater for helping to build a community of music makers!
June 24, 2022
Make Music Day – thank you!
Congratulations to all who took part in Tuesday's Make Music Day!
More than 3,000 music-making events took place in the U.S. on June 21, along with performances by thousands more musicians in 120 countries around the world who celebrated the day.
- Check out 134 press clips about Make Music Day 2022, from media outlets in 60 U.S. cities, to learn about events you may have missed!
- Congratulations to the winner of this year's Young Composers Contest, Matthias Bergmann of Austria! A recording of his piece has been recorded by The Swingles and posted on our site.
- Great videos are coming in from #MySongIsYourSong partners, with a few dozen already posted here.
- And the Global Live Stream is available for replay, with performances from Australia, Germany, UK, India, the US, and more!
June 20, 2022
Street Studios Return!
After a two-year pause during the pandemic, Street Studio Cities returns to the streets tomorrow for Make Music Day!
Street Studio Cities, organized with Found Sound Nation and HARMAN, bring music producers onto the streets on June 21, setting up mobile recording studios on sidewalks, plazas, and parks. In one afternoon, producers invite passersby from the community to join in a completely improvised music creation session. At the end of the day, each producer mixes down one track, using only the material recorded on-site, to share the sounds of their city with the world.
This year's producers – including Trayer Tryon (from Hundred Waters), Jeremy Thal (Neutral Milk Hotel), and Nandi Rose (Half Waif) – will be stationed in 11 cities in 5 countries, ready to record and make street life more musical.
June 20, 2022
Partner of the Week: Harman
Harman has been a crucial supporter of Make Music Day for the last seven years, part of their unwavering commitment to music and music education.
Not only do they sponsor the international Street Studio Cities, but Harman employees get into Make Music Day on a very personal level. From Detroit to Poland, employees on June 21 will perform in musical talent shows, learn new instruments, and play music with each other, all over the world.
Thank you Harman for your global leadership!
June 20, 2022
Make Music Country of the Week: Nigeria
Since 2016, Make Music Lagos has brought hundreds of outstanding participatory events – and superstars like King Sunny Adé – to public spaces in the city each June 21.
Now the organizers are going even bigger, expanding their event into a nationwide Make Music Nigeria, with events in Lagos, Abuja, Akwa Ibom, Ibadan, and beyond! And over 160 Nigeria songwriters are participating in #MySongIsYourSong from all over the country.
Learn more on their website!
June 17, 2022
The Jazz Foundation: Providing a Safety Net for Jazz and Blues Musicians
Interview with Will Glass, Program Director of the Jazz Foundation, conducted by the Make Music Alliance in May 2022
How did the Jazz Foundation get started?
It was founded in New York in 1989 by a small group of musicians and musician advocates, including Dr. Billy Taylor, Phoebe Jacobs, Ann Ruckert, Cy Blank, and Herb Storfer. It was founded because these people saw a gap in support for lifelong musicians, particularly in jazz, and it was founded as a safety net for these artists.
What work did the foundation do to begin with?
The first ten years or so were small; it was largely a gentleman in his apartment with a checkbook, giving out grants for the Jazz Musicians Emergency Fund, which was the primary program of the Jazz Foundation in the beginning. Around the year 2000, Wendy Oxenhorn came on as Executive Director and fundraising really stepped up with our annual “Great Night In Harlem” gala at the Apollo Theater, and a lot of people know us through that event, because that’s been 20 years of A-list performers at the Apollo. Our relief efforts also stepped up out of necessity, particularly after Hurricane Katrina, when we helped over a thousand musicians who had lost their homes through a period of great difficulty.
I see that you create work opportunities for musicians; when did that begin?
In the aftermath of Katrina is also when our role stepped up as a provider of work opportunities. Our Jazz in the Schools has started a little before that, but when Katrina happened and there were no gigs anywhere in New Orleans we were able to use Jazz in the schools, and also concerts in nursing homes and community centers as a way for musicians to have places to play, and we would pay them. To this day we have around a dozen bands in New Orleans who play every month, and we have a co-worker who lives down there. I administer around a dozen bands in New York, and there are some other bands in other states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, California, who perform for us regularly, largely in schools and nursing home. One of our crucial early allies for our “gig fund” was the Make Music Alliance. We had some money to try to create some work, and through the Make Music Alliance we were able to connect with local venues, connect with musicians we know, and do several concerts around the country all at once. Make Music was a critical partner that helped us realize this vision of setting up bands in public spaces and letting them play.
Now that live performances are returning, what are you working on for the immediate future?
I think for the performance programs this summer is proving that our outdoor programming is going to remain robust, that the demand for live music is huge, and the benefit and the joy and the healing that comes with hearing live music is more in demand than ever before. Our outdoor programming of the kind we started with Make Music is going to continue to grow, we will continue to work with our partners, and then I hope that we will be getting back to our indoor programming, particularly in schools and nursing homes, because those are populations that we love to reach and that have always loved having our bands visit, and hoping that it’s safe enough in September so we can get back to that and expand that as well. But, as everyone knows, things are still a little bit uncertain, so one day at a time, I guess!
Do you think live music is appreciated more after the past two years?
Absolutely; I think more people might recognize the difference in the physical sensation of feeling the vibration in the air of music, of being there when it is live, as opposed to experiencing it virtually or even through recordings. After two years of being inside, you really feel the difference when you hear those instruments in person, and hopefully it will encourage people to get back out there. Some of our staff was in New Orleans last week for the Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the joy was palpable, and that was a good sign of live music really coming back strong.