June 4, 2020
Make Music Country of the Week: UK
Make Music Day UK encompassed nearly 1,200 live performances in over 400 venues last year – over 8x larger than their first one in 2017!
After coordinating 132 digital performances last year, this year’s transition online was met with open arms. This June 21, Make Music Day UK will host several digital participatory projects including Bring Me Sunshine, Lockdown Sound Challenge, and the Auld Lang Syne project, which invites everyone to join a performance of one of Scotland’s most popular and enduring folk songs.
Finally, they will join five other European countries to produce Rebels With a Cause, an international music video project created by musicians ages 12 to 25. The video will premiere on June 21st at 3pm CET (9am EDT).
Check out the Make Music Day UK website for more exciting details!
May 20, 2020
World’s Smallest Marching Band
Over the past decade, dozens of Make Music Day celebrations around the country have featured the “Sousapalooza” – an invitation for hundreds of brass, wind, and percussion players to come together and sightread the music of The March King, John Philip Sousa.
In 2020, in lieu of these massive gatherings, Make Music Day will explore the other end of the scale with The World’s Smallest Marching Band. Individual brass and wind players will parade through cities on June 21, by themselves, playing band repertoire to people listening from their homes or workplaces. These Pied Pipers (without rats or children) can bring musical joy in a year when parades are far and few between.
Anyone can start their own tiny marching band! Contact Jonah Udall at jonah@makemusicday.org to get started.
May 20, 2020
Make Music Artists of the Week: John Bertles and Carina Piaggio
Since 1988, scientist-musicians John Bertles and Carina Piaggio have invented and composed for orchestras of strange-looking but great-sounding musical instruments made from reused and repurposed materials.
Today, their organization Bash The Trash Environmental Arts reaches nearly 60,000 students, teachers and adults each year through their workshops, performances, festivals, and professional development sessions.
This Make Music Day, join John and Carina in raising awareness about trash pollution by building fun instruments from found objects! (If you need some strings, free used guitar strings will be sent to you upon request thanks to D’Addario’s Playback String Recycling program.) Once you’ve built your instruments, use them to play “Ode to Joy” or “Baby Shark” — your choice — and post your performances with the #BashTheTrash hashtag.
For detailed instrument building videos and instructions, and info on a live Bash The Trash session on June 21, visit our website.
May 20, 2020
Hohner Harmonica Hangouts
Our deepest thanks goes to Make Music Day partner Hohner, a longtime leader in the harmonica field.
For the eighth straight year, Hohner is generously providing thousands of free harmonicas to dozens of cities for Make Music Day, allowing countless first-time players to start developing their skills to make music throughout the year.
In this socially distanced time, local Make Music chapters are organizing online hangouts for harmonica players, distributing free instruments through local restaurant delivery services, and finding all sorts of creative ways to keep harmonica events going strong on June 21.
Stay in touch with your local chapter to find out what’s planned near you!
May 20, 2020
Make Music City of the Week: Pittsburgh
In 2015, when Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto announced his support for street performing without a permit, local resident Jasmine Kurjakovic seized the moment to launch the city’s first Make Music Day.
Since then, whether it has been hip-hop in Lawrenceville, gospel in Highland Park, bluegrass in Squirrel Hill, classical in the Hill District, or kids rocking out on buckets at The Children’s Museum, Make Music Pittsburgh has offered music in its purest form with a Pittsburgh flare.
This June 21, Make Music Pittsburgh will be hosting an all-day livestream event on their Facebook page. Community hosts will livestream music from their favorite artists throughout the day, and lead segments that include music-related panel discussions, a virtual open mic, and instrument building workshops.
Check out the Make Music Pittsburgh website!
May 16, 2020
Making Make Music Day Yours
Are you planning a Make Music Day event, but not sure how to get the word out? We are here to help!
In the Media Resources section of our website you’ll find extensive materials ready to download and use, including an updated toolkit, photos, videos and more.
You’ll also find new logos and digital assets created by illustrator Daniel Greenfeld especially for this year’s socially-distanced Make Music Day. The logo, and each illustration, show the wavelengths that connect us even when we’re not in the same space.
And if you are in a city with a local Make Music chapter, you are in luck – once you’ve made plans on your city’s registration site, your local chapter will be your promotional partner. Stay in touch with them!
May 16, 2020
Track Meet
This year for Make Music Day, join composers, producers and songwriters from around the world in Track Meet, a collaborative race against the clock.
Over the course of six hours, teams of four musicians will create brand new original tracks in a creative relay. Using the virtual audio workstation SoundTrap, each musician will get 90 minutes to add their contribution before the next teammate takes over. At the end of the day, we will bounce each team’s track and host them online for everyone to hear.
Interested in joining the Track Meet? Register to be matched with a creative team or sign up with your own group of four musicians by June 7th.
See our website for full details!
May 16, 2020
Make Music Country of the Week: Germany
Germany began celebrating Make Music Day in 1985, when Munich organized its first Fête de la Musique on June 21st (using the untranslated French name). Berlin followed with its own Fête in 1995.
Twenty-five years later, the Fête de la Musique Berlin includes hundreds of performances each June 21, and there are thousands more across 70 other German cities.
In 2020, for the first time, Germany’s cities are working together to share ideas, and coordinate national initiatives on June 21, including singalongs of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy at 5pm, and a lullaby at 11pm.
Learn more at Germany’s Fête de la Musique website.
May 9, 2020
Five More National Projects
With so many concerts, year-end recitals, and summer music programs canceled this year, we feel a renewed mission to keep music alive and communities connected on June 21.
Even with social distancing in effect, there are so many ways to join Make Music Day, no matter your age, musical genre, experience, or location. Last week we previewed six new initiatives; this week we have five more:
Check them out, mark your calendar, and stay tuned for more details to come!
May 9, 2020
#MySongIsYourSong
This Make Music Day, we invite songwriters and composers of all styles and walks of life to join in a global song swap called #MySongIsYourSong.
Sign up to learn and perform a song by a local artist, and hear one of your original songs covered in return! Just register by May 21st using this form.
Partners will be carefully matched and introduced on June 5, then will share their video performances on June 21 with the hashtag #mysongisyoursong. Learn more on our website.