MAKE MUSIC NEW YORK

Spectacular Lineup of Live, Free, In-Person and Virtual Music Making Events Citywide to Launch Summer

Make Music New York, the unique, live, free citywide musical celebration held each June 21, today announced its updated schedule of exciting and diverse in-person concerts, performances, music lessons, jam sessions and other music making events. The daylong musical festival on the summer solstice is the flagship event of Make Music Day, which is being staged in over 100 U.S. cities and the entire states of Connecticut, Hawaii, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin. Make Music New York will further demonstrate music’s power to unite, heal and uplift. MMNY 2021 is returning to a mostly in-person event after 2020 moved to a largely virtual format due to COVID. Safety protocols will remain in place.

Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music New York is open to anyone who wants to take part. Now in its 15th year, Make Music New York encourages music makers of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels to take center stage and share their skills and passions through performances from public plazas and open streets, parks and community gardens, on sidewalks fronting public libraries and small businesses, and in partnerships with fellow arts presenters and cultural institutions across all five boroughs.

First launched in France in 1982 as Fête de la Musique, Make Music Day is observed by hundreds of millions of people today in over 1,000 cities across 120 countries. Promoting the natural music maker in all of us, the celebration is an open invitation for everyone to make, share, teach, learn and explore music on the longest day of the year and the first day of summer. Make Music Day is presented in the U.S. by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance.

New York will join Make Music Day cities around the world in memorializing all the lives lost to COVID, by participating in This Moment in Time, a series of percussion performances played on gongs from public places globally. For one interrupted hour, beginning at 12 pm, Ryan Sawyer and the percussion ensemble Talujon will perform new works on multiple arrays of gongs set up at the Seaport District in Lower Manhattan to mark the losses of the past year. Afterwards, the public will be invited to play the gongs themselves.

Make Music New York will also feature several Mass Appeal concerts, which bring together people of all ages and skill levels to make music in participatory, single-instrument groups, including accordions, classical guitars, French horns, harmonicas, mandolins, ukuleles and violins.

About Make Music New York
Make Music New York is a not-for-profit dedicated to bring out the musician in all of us, to connect New Yorkers to their communities and with each other, and to bring bold new artistic creations to life. Its mission is ambitious, inclusive, adventurous and fun, and it is accomplished through two annual citywide celebrations: the flagship festival Make Music New York, held each summer solstice on June 21st — the longest day of the year — and Make Music Winter, a series of participatory musical parades held each winter solstice on December 21st — the longest night of the year. For more information, please visit www.makemusicny.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

About Make Music Day
Held annually on June 21, Make Music Day is part of the international Fête de la Musique, taking place in 1,000 cities across 120 countries. The daylong, musical free-for-all celebrates music in all its forms, encouraging people to band together and play in free public concerts. Over 100 U.S. cities and the entire states of Connecticut, Hawaii, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin are participating in this year’s celebration. Make Music Day is presented by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance. For more information, please visit www.makemusicday.org.

About The NAMM Foundation
The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit supported in part by the National Association of Music Merchants and its 10,300 members around the world. The NAMM Foundation works to advance active participating in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving and public service programs. For more information about The NAMM Foundation, please visit www.nammfoundation.org.