About Make Music
Each Make Music city is independently organized. Often it’s a local community group, media outlet, arts presenter, government agency, or civic leader who champions the musical holiday in their hometown.
The nonprofit Make Music Alliance exists to serve these Make Music organizers around the world. Its goals are to promote Make Music participation, provide tools to help manage the event in each community, and foster collaboration, mentorship, and mutual support among its members.
Who can join the Alliance?
Membership in the Make Music Alliance is open to organizers who coordinate events that are:
- free (no tickets, no musicians or audience members are charged), and
- participatory (open to any musicians at any level who wish to participate),
- featuring live music performances
- for all ages and genres (no restrictions on kinds of music)
- at multiple venues (not just one concert in one location)
- in public spaces (that are accessible and welcoming to everyone)
- on June 21.
While our current focus is on North America, we welcome members from all over the world.
Membership Benefits
Make Music Alliance members each receive:
- A complete software package to help manage the event in your city. The package includes an online matchmaking and registration tools for participants, a complete listings platform, dynamically-created promotional posters for each participant, and more. (Contact us for a demo of the software.)
- A customized, elegant website for each city, integrating the software tools, hosted on our site and controlled directly by each member
- Tech support and general consulting via phone from the Alliance’s professional staff
- Weekly and monthly mentorship via phone for new cities from experienced city organizers
- Admission to the annual two-day Make Music Alliance conference in January
- Assistance with Mass Appeals and other national creative projects
- Access to a library of materials from other cities, including sample press releases, legal contracts, e-newsletter language, production timelines, sponsorship decks, and grant applications
- Assistance with grant writing and sponsorship opportunities
- One year of fiscal sponsorship for new U.S. organizations awaiting 501(c)(3) status
- Inclusion in promotional campaigns to benefit member cities.
Membership benefits are good for one calendar year upon payment of dues and signing a membership agreement.
Membership Dues
Dues are set on a sliding scale, based on each organization’s Make Music budget. Non-profit organizations receive discounted rates.
| Budget | Non-profit | For-profit |
|---|---|---|
| Under $3,000 | $325 | $390 |
| $3,000 – $5,999 | $500 | $600 |
| $6,000 – $7,999 | $675 | $810 |
| $8,000 – $9,999 | $850 | $1,020 |
| $10,000 – $14,999 | $1,250 | $1,500 |
| $15,000 – $19,999 | $1,750 | $2,100 |
| $20,000 – $24,999 | $2,250 | $2,700 |
| $25,000 – $29,999 | $2,750 | $3,300 |
| $30,000 – $34,999 | $3,250 | $3,900 |
| $35,000 – $39,999 | $3,650 | $4,380 |
| $40,000 – $99,999 | $4,000 | $4,800 |
| $100,000 and up | $5,000 | $6,000 |
For organizations that exist solely to coordinate Make Music celebrations, the program budget is considered to be the same as the organization’s full expense budget. For organizations running multiple programs, the program budget includes all specific Make Music costs, plus other expenses allocated to the project (such as staff salaries and overhead). We rely on members to provide the most accurate budget estimates they can.
Organizations in the process of non-profit incorporation are charged the non-profit rates. Organizations coordinating Make Music for the first time are considered to be in the lowest budget category.
Launching the Holiday in a New City
The Alliance welcomes inquiries from those who want assistance in bringing Make Music to their city. Please email Aaron Friedman at aaron@makemusicday.org to get started!
Make Music Alliance: Staff
Aaron Friedman (Executive Director) is the founder of Make Music New York, a nonprofit organization that produces a city-wide outdoor musical celebration in New York on June 21st. Launched in 2007, the celebration has grown to become the most expansive musical event in the city’s history. In 2002, while studying composition at Columbia University, he founded an environmental advocacy group called “Silent Majority” to combat noise pollution in New York. The group’s research prompted new legislation in the City Council to regulate car alarms, and its lobbying efforts led to the bill’s passage in 2004.
Matt Fox (Deputy Director) is the owner of Fox in a Box Marketing & PR, co-founder of Make Music Nashville and a contributing writer for Nashville’s alt-weekly, Nashville Scene. He has won first place for his cherry tomatoes in the TN State Fair five years in a row.
Jonah Udall (Special Projects Manager) is a guitarist and director, creating work in the vast territory between improvisation and composition. He directs ECHOensemble, a collective of musicians and dancers creating evolving architecture of movement and sound, and tours internationally with chamber-jazz trio Sound Underground. Jonah grew up in Berkeley, California, steeped in folk musics from around the world. He is always looking for new ways of sharing the healing and connectivity of making sound together.
Raphael Anastas (Marketing and Communications Manager) holds a degree in vocal performance from NYU Steinhardt and is a recent graduate of the Master of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship program at The New School’s College of Performing Arts. Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Raphael moved to New York City in 2013, and has since worked as a theater artist, administrator, and media manager for organizations like Bluelaces Theater Company, Trusty Sidekick, Creative Goods Merchandise, Page 73 Productions, Make Music New York, and The New School.
Make Music Alliance: Board of Directors
Andrea Berman (Secretary) is the Executive Director of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence, which provides educational enrichment programs and programs that level the playing field for all public school students in New Rochelle. Since 2004, Andrea has been working in philanthropy leading grantmaking programs at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Connecticut Community Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.
Joe Carroll is a producer, composer, ad executive and founder of the Manhattan Producers Alliance. He has written and produced hundreds of songs for TV and film including award-winning projects for Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS, Sesame Workshop and The Jim Henson Company. His career highlights include performing with Zippy the Chimp, a tuxedo-clad chimpanzee whose skills included drinking bourbon and roller-skating, sometimes simultaneously.
Aaron Friedman (President)
Andrew Horwitz (Vice-President) is a cultural consultant, creative strategist and writer living in Los Angeles. He has served as the VP, Director of Programs at the Skirball Cultural Center, and from 2011 – 2013 he curated and produced Manhattan’s free, outdoor, multidisciplinary arts festival, The River To River Festival, for LMCC where he served as Director of Public Programs. He has worked producer at Performance Space. 122, curator of the PRELUDE Festival at the Graduate Center at CUNY and as Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Foundation for Jewish Culture among other positions. He is also the founder of arts website Culturebot.org, launched in 2003, and was a 2014 recipient of the Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.
Jack Lang is President of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. In 1982, while serving as France’s Minister of Culture, he created the Fête de la Musique. Along with his celebrated career in government (including eight years as Minister of Culture and four years as Minister of Education), he was the founder and director of the World Theater Festival at Nancy, and Professor of International Law at Nancy and Paris X University-Nanterre.
Mike Rosenthal is the Head of Strategic Marketing for Mick Management, overseeing brand partnerships and strategy for acts like Childish Gambino, Walk the Moon, Animal Collective, Leon Bridges, and many others. Previously Mike spent five years handling brand partnerships and digital strategy for the band OK Go and running their record label, Paracadute.
Subhankar Sinha (Treasurer) is a Director at PwC in New York. He co-leads technology innovation efforts in Financial Markets with a focus on developing platforms by leveraging Blockchain, Smart Contracts and other emerging technologies. Subhankar has 18 years of experience providing consulting services to large global companies across various industry sectors. He also works with emerging technology startups to help define their value proposition, business model and go-to-market strategies.
Make Music Alliance: Advisory Council
Affiliation is provided for identification purposes only and does not constitute institutional endorsement.
Adeola Akinyemi, Make Music Lagos
Taryn Balwinski, Make Music Chattanooga
Jamie Bennett, ArtPlace America
Mark Green, Make Music Salem
Kuang-Hao Huang, Make Music Chicago
Lolita Jackson, City of New York (Office of the Mayor)
Adriane Jefferson, City of New Haven (Department of Cultural Affairs)
Chris Wangro, Producer