Make Music Hartford is a live, free musical celebration on June 21 across the city, coordinated by the Greater Hartford Arts Council.
What is Make Music Hartford?
Make Music Hartford is a part of the international Make Music Day movement which brings free, community-wide, outdoor musical celebrations to hundreds of cities worldwide! Every year, the celebration is held on June 21, the summer solstice, in more than 1,000 communities around the world.
Make Music Hartford will feature musicians of all abilities and music from any genre. Sidewalks, parks, front porches, and public spaces throughout the city will become stages for local musicians to perform and for all to enjoy. Everyone is invited to participate in this international day of music by performing, providing an outdoor space, appreciating, or volunteering. It’s all for the love of music!
Make Music Hartford is brought to you by the Greater Hartford Arts Council as part of our mission to inspire all people to participate and invest in the arts.
Make Music Hartford will return in 2020, but it will look a little different. Due to COVID-19, many of the events we planned for this year’s event will not be able to take place while others will become virtual experiences you can enjoy from home.
Make Music Hartford is a virtual event in 2020.
All Make Music Hartford performances must be free to attend and family-friendly.
Musicians can list their own live stream events or create a profile and search for virtual venues. Venues can register virtual platforms and team up with musicians to present live streamed performances on June 21st. All registered performances will be promoted in the official Make Music Hartford listing.
Register to Go Live for Make Music Hartford
A number of special events will be hosted by the Greater Hartford Arts Council as well as community partners around Hartford and around the world. Information about how to participate in events like Bash the Trash, Flowerpot Music, the World’s Smallest Marching Band, and more can be found below. More events will be added between now and June 21st.
Local musicians cover each others songs in this song swap happening around the world. Songwriters and composers of all styles and walks of life are invited to participate in #MySongIsYourSong. Register HERE by May 21st to participate. Tune in on June 21st to hear Hartford-area musicians participate!
Music teachers around the world will offer 12 hours of free, online group lessons for 25 different instruments. More information about how to find lessons on your favorite instrument are coming soon! Teachers interested in teaching lessons can find out more HERE.
Join our virtual Bash the Trash Instrument Making Party! We have videos and how-to guides on how to turn items you would normally throw away into cool sounding instruments. Give the a try and share a video with us! Find tutorials HERE.
Hartford’s performance of Flowerpot Music, composed by Eliot Cole, is going international! Be a part of the internationally live-streamed performance of bell-like tones that pass from performer to performer in improvised gestures on flower pots! Find out more and register HERE.
In partnership with Make Music Australia Make Music China, and the Make Music Alliance we invite everyone to post a musical performance from home on June 21, and tag three friends to challenge them to do the same. More info HERE.
Ready for some local music before June 21st? Check out Make Music Mondays every Monday night around 8pm on the @letsgoarts Instagram account. Hartford-area musicians will share stories and songs via livestream. Check out the 2020 lineup HERE.
In a time when to-go orders may be more common than dine-in experiences at restaurants, we’re launching Takeout and Takeover. Restaurants serving takeout orders can register their social media channel as a “venue” for local musicians to “takeover” on June 21st in celebration of Make Music Hartford. Enjoy takeout from your favorite Hartford restaurant while enjoying a jazz concert from their Instagram account or a growler from your local brewery while tuning into their Facebook Live. Register your virtual venue or sign up to be a musician HERE.
On June 21st, over the course of six hours, teams of four musicians will create brand new original tracks in a creative relay. Hartford-area musicians are invited to join. Deadline for musicians to register is June 7th. Find out more HERE.
Individual brass, wind, and percussion players will parade through cities, by themselves, playing band repertoire to people listening from their homes or workplaces. Musicians can register to march and a listing of neighborhood routes will be available later in June. Details on how to sign up and find musicians are HERE.
You read that correctly! It’s time to release your inner diva with Virtual Shower Singing. There are two ways to participate. Share your vocals with us before Make Music Day or participate in a Virtual Shower Singing open mic on June 21st. Details on how to show us your talent are HERE.
Composers between the ages of 13 and 21 are invited to enter a 3 minute composition to go along with William Carlos Williams’s poem, “By the road to the contagious hospital” . Entries due May 18th. Full contest details HERE.
Your support makes programs like Make Music Hartford possible. Discover branding opportunities for your company and help us connect people through music.
Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Roxane Sanders rsanders[at]letsgoarts.org
Make Music Hartford is a program of the Greater Hartford Arts Council, a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire all people to participate and invest in the arts. Help us make events like Make Music Hartford possible.
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Special thanks to the volunteer photographers who helped capture Make Music Hartford in photos and videos:
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Hartford Courant: “Sounds of summer: Hartford’s Make music 2019 celebration had the city singing” (June 21, 2019)
WTNH: “Make Music Hartford Bigger Than Ever ” (June 20, 2019)
Hartford Courant: “Make Music Hartford Celebrating the winter solstice with parade, concerts, drink specials at area bars” (December 17, 2018)
National Make Music Winter Press Release: “Make Music Winter to Expand Nationwide This December 21” (October 17, 2018)
Hartford Courant: “Hartford Joins Global Make Music Day with Concerts Around the City” (June 21, 2018)
Hartford Courant: “Music to Fill the Streets as Connecticut Joins Global Make Music Day” (June 18, 2018)
USA Today: “Where to Celebrate Make Music Day Across the Country” (June 15, 2018)
Patch: “Free Concerts Set for Make Music Day in West Hartford” (June 15, 2018)
Billboard Magazine: “Make Music Day To Return This Summer With More Than 4,500 Concerts” (April 4, 2018)
Rolling Stone:“‘Make Music Day’ Plots 4,500 Free Events, Concerts Nationwide” (April 3, 2018)
National Make Music Day Press Release: “Make Music Day 2018 Returns On Thursday, June 21” (March 28, 2018)
Hartford Courant: “Connecticut to Join Global Make Music Day” (March 14, 2018)
WILI 95.3 FM, Windham Arts Radio Review: Interview with Aaron Friedman of the Make Music Alliance (February 28, 2018)
Make Music Alliance: “Media Resources”
Get in touch with us…
Amanda Roy
Director of Community Impact
Greater Hartford Arts Council
aroy[at]letsgoarts.org