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.
May 9, 2020
Make Music Artist of the Week: Elise Ecklund
Ukulele artist Elise Ecklund, a YouTube star with over 1.7 million subscribers, is one of the many Flight Ukulele artists joining this year’s massive 25×12: Live Online Lessons project for Make Music Day.
From 11am to 11pm EST, master teachers of all instruments and styles will stream group lessons on Zoom that anyone can join. A full schedule will be available in early June!
May 9, 2020
Make Music City of the Week: Davis CA
Davis, California first launched Make Music Day in 2017, when the publisher of The Davis Dirt decided to bring this international celebration to her small, progressive city. Over the last few years, Davis’s senior centers, arboretum, food coops, train station, art centers, breweries, museums, post office, and music stores have all embraced Make Music Davis and hosted musical events.
This year, community radio station KDRT has taken the lead and is laying the groundwork for a fantastic day of music making. Their Earth Day Sing Out last month, with songs made by local musicians in honor of Earth Day, shows the station’s community building spirit, with a taste of what’s to come on June 21!
Check out the Make Music Davis website here.
April 28, 2020
Six National Projects (& more to come)
Last month, we announced that Make Music Day was on for June 21, despite this year’s challenges.
And why not? Make Music Day is an invitation for everyone to make music anywhere — an idea that’s as important as ever. Around the country, musicians and organizers heeded the call and have developed creative, new, socially distanced ways for anyone to join Make Music Day 2020.
Today we are excited to preview six of these initiatives: Bash the Trash, Flowerpot Music, Global Livestream, #MySongIsYourSong, World’s Smallest Marching Band, and Young Composers Contest.
And we’ll have six more to come next week, and many more details — watch this space!
April 28, 2020
Six National Projects (& more to come)
Last month, we announced that Make Music Day was on for June 21, despite this year’s challenges.
And why not? Make Music Day is an invitation for everyone to make music anywhere — an idea that’s as important as ever. Around the country, musicians and organizers heeded the call and have developed creative, new, socially distanced ways for anyone to join Make Music Day 2020.
Today we are excited to preview six of these initiatives: Bash the Trash, Flowerpot Music, Global Livestream, #MySongIsYourSong, World’s Smallest Marching Band, and Young Composers Contest.
And we’ll have six more to come next week, and many more details — watch this space!
April 28, 2020
Young Composers Contest
In celebration of Make Music Day, and of all the young composers stuck at home this spring, Make Music Alliance is hosting a composition contest for composers aged 13-21.
Young composers are invited to write a short, 3-minute piece for SATB vocal quartet, set to William Carlos Williams’s timely poem “By the road to the contagious hospital”.
A panel of distinguished judges, made up of composers David T. Little, Ellen Reid (recipient of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music), Christopher Tin and conductor Anna Lapwood, will provide feedback and select three winning pieces and seven honorable mentions. Then all ten pieces will be professionally recorded by the all-star Make Music Quarantet, and released online for Make Music Day on June 21st.
The submission deadline is May 18th – full details are available on our website.
(Are you over 21? Be a mentor and share the contest with students and young friends!)
April 28, 2020
Make Music State of the Week: Wisconsin
The Badger State has long stood out for its large, passionate Make Music Day celebrations. Six Wisconsin cities, from populous Milwaukee to minuscule Land O’ Lakes, took part last year on June 21.
In 2020, Arts Wisconsin and its partners (the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, Wisconsin Public Radio, and Wisconsin School Music Association) have raised the state’s Make Music Day to an unprecedented scale. Fifteen communities, including most of the major cities, are now organizing for Make Music Wisconsin, with still more coming on board for 2021.
Click here for the full statewide details!
March 19, 2020
Make Music Day 2020
Dear friends,
We hope this finds you safe and healthy.
Like all of you, we are grappling with the huge impact COVID-19 is having around the world, and in our daily lives. As we plan for Make Music Day on June 21, 2020, we don’t know if public gatherings will be feasible at that date, or if everyone will be “social distancing” and stuck at home.
Despite this uncertainty, we wanted to let you know that Make Music Day will still be happening on June 21. Unlike traditional music festivals, Make Music Day is an open invitation for everyone to make music anywhere and everywhere. We hope to be taking over the streets with music on June 21, but if we can’t, we invite you to join one of the online Make Music Day initiatives that will take place no matter what.
- Live From Home Challenge: Record a musical performance at home on June 21, and tag three friends to challenge them to respond with their own performances.
- Online Music Lessons: Teachers around the world will be offering free, online lessons for a variety of instruments on June 21.
- Street Studios: Be part of a completely improvised music creation session. Record any sound or musical material on June 21st and upload it to one of the “Street Studio” producers, then watch the producer’s livestream as they incorporate it into a musical track created on the spot, using only the submitted materials.
- Bands Undercover: Individuals or bands sign up to cover each other’s original music, and live stream their performances to each other in a unique musical exchange on June 21.
- Young Composers Contest: Composers between the ages of 13-21 are invited to submit short, original compositions for choir by June 1st. A panel of renowned composers will give their feedback on all entries, and will select one winning piece to release on June 21 to the world in a professional performance.
- Global Livestream: a day-long video stream on June 21 will show the rich diversity of live Make Music Day events around the world.
More details for each of these initiatives will be announced soon. (Do you have other ideas? Just reply to this email and let us know.)
In this time of social distancing, music’s powerful role to bring us together as a community is more important than ever. While physical public gatherings may not be currently accessible, we can still stay connected online and celebrate music.
Of course, we still hope to come out together in public on June 21 — in the coming weeks, look for announcements from your local Make Music Day coordinators with updates. But above all, we are committed to supporting the health and well-being of the public during this challenging time, and will follow the guidance of government health departments to make sure everyone stays safe.
Sincerely,
Make Music Alliance (U.S.)
Make Music Day UK
Make Music Australia
Fête de la Musique Deutschland
Confederation of European Music Industries (Italy)
PS: if you are stuck at home in the coming weeks or months, post a video of yourself making music with the tag #makemusicday and we will share it.
PPS: Wash your hands!
December 21, 2019
Today is Make Music Winter!
Make Music Winter is finally here, taking place in 40 cities around the country. Be sure to check out the events happening near you on the winter solstice, and join in on the conversation with #MakeMusicWinter.
December 20, 2019
MM Winter Spotlights: New Cities
Litchfield, CT
For Litchfield‘s first Make Music Winter event, Charym Yoga will host a Sound Healing March They are offering 3 free sessions of music and sound healing which will be followed by a community parade and yogi caroling. Participants are encouraged to bring their mats, instruments, and voice to this celebration!
Tucson, AZ
On Saturday, Make Music Winter comes to Tucson with multiple musical opportunities. There will be performances by Flutes for Vets, Native American winter solstice music, a variety of piano and guitar instrumentalists, ukulele tunes, and 15 local youth rock bands. A truly diverse lineup with music to intrigue a variety of interests!
Santa Fe, NM
The Candyman hosts Santa Fe‘s first Make Music Winter celebration from the fire pit on their porch, with free hot cocoa, apple cider, and light fare. All participants will receive a free rhythm shaker to play while singing along with classic Christmas carols led by The Candyman’s music teachers. Warm your hands, heart and voices on The Candyman porch!