Press Release 5/30/23: MAKE MUSIC SEATTLE
From: Rainier Avenue Radio
Contact: Tony Benton, RainierAvenueRadio.World@gmail.com 206 280-3690
Make Music Day Seattle 2023
Over 4,000 free musical events in 120 cities across 30 states on the summer solstice –
– Annual celebration joins 1,000+ cities around the world in global festival –
SEATTLE May 30th 2023 — Make Music Day Seattle, the city wide festival of
making music held annually on the summer solstice, today announced the
return of its vast program with live, free music-making events across Seattle
on Wednesday, June 21st featuring performances at the Downtown Seattle
Waterfront, South Seattle and Ballard.
Launched in France in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique, Make Music Day has
become a global phenomenon, celebrated by hundreds of millions of people
in more than 1,000 cities around the world, including 120 cities in the U.S.,
where it has spread quickly after debuting in New York in 2007. Held on the
longest day of the year, the world’s largest annual music event celebrates and
promotes the natural music maker in everyone, regardless of age or skill level.
Last year, 104 U.S. cities organized 3,819 free Make Music events on June 21,
with more than 100 concerts each in Seattle, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Madison,
New York, and Salem (OR). This year, Albany, Ann Arbor, Fresno, Indianapolis,
Raleigh, and Tulsa are celebrating their inaugural Make Music Days, while
Boston, Detroit, Huntsville, and San Diego return for the first time since the
pandemic. Over 120 cities are active, and well over 4,000 events are planned
around the country, including statewide celebrations across Alabama,
Connecticut, Hawaii, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Completely different from a traditional music festival, Make Music Day
activities are free and open to anyone wanting to participate. Reimagining
their cities and towns as stages, every kind of musician – young and old,
amateur, and professional, of every musical persuasion – fills streets, parks,
plazas, porches, rooftops, gardens, and other public spaces to celebrate,
create and share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers.
Showing just how participatory Make Music Day can be, Stridulations by
composer and percussionist Billy Martin (Medeski Martin & Wood), a suite of
interlocking rhythmic compositions that anyone can join, will be a new June
21 highlight this year in dozens of cities, including New York City, where Martin
will conduct a performance for percussionists and vocalists at Little Island on
the West Side of Manhattan. (The name “Stridulations” refers to the sound of
crickets, a species that makes music collectively.)
Uniting the piano community, another new project called Roomful of Pianos
will bring together hundreds of pianists of different levels to perform music by
W.A. Mozart, William Bolcom, and others arranged for ten pianos or more.
Piano showrooms and music schools in Austin, Duluth (GA), Fresno, Houston,
and New York City have signed on to host these colossal piano events, which
grow out of an annual project organized since 2018 at The NAMM Show in
Anaheim, CA.
And in a new global highlight, Make Music, Make Friends will connect school
children aged 7-13 from Australia, China, Italy, Thailand, the U.K., and the U.S.
on Make Music Day. Ten classes from each country will create a musical
greeting video, share it with schools from different countries, and have their
students watch the musical messages on June 21 to expose them to different
regions and cultures.
Other national highlights of Make Music Day 2023 will include:
Flowerpot Music – For the fourth year, participants around the country
will be invited to perform a composition by celebrated composer Elliot
Cole and directed by percussionist Peter Ferry using an unlikely but
beautiful percussion instrument: the flowerpot. Appropriate for
musicians and non-musicians alike, participants can join a group and
create outdoor soundscapes through easy-to-learn games.
Mass Appeal – People of all ages and skill levels will band together to
make music in large, single-instrument groups. This year, leading
music brands such as Alfred Music, Hohner, Rhythm Band
Instruments, and Vic Firth are donating thousands of free instruments
so that any member of the public can stop by these events and join the
band.
#MySongIsYourSong – Songwriters and composers of all styles and
walks of life will join in a global song swap where they’ll learn a song by
another artist and hear theirs covered in return.
Sousapalooza – In multiple cities, including Chicago, Lansing (MI), and
New York, large groups of brass and wind musicians will assemble in
parks and plazas to play the music of “March King” John Philip Sousa.
Anyone is invited to download the music, bring their horn, and join the
band.
For More information visit www.makemusicday.org/seattle/
2019 NEWS
GROW MAKE MUSIC DAY IN SEATTLE!
Who wants to run a STREET STUDIO?
Any place can be a Make Music Day venue!
Shout out by Office of Film & Music
Why Make Music Day is Important (Letter from Board President Ramona Grotte)