Celebrate Make Music Day 2024
Make Music Day is a worldwide celebration, occurring annually on June 21st. It underscores the universal language of music, encouraging everyone to engage and participate in musical activities. The origins of the “Fête De La Musique” trace back to France, 42 years ago. Jack Lang and his team at the Ministry of Culture envisioned a new type of musical celebration. They pictured a day filled with free music in every conceivable public space—street corners, parks, rooftops, gardens, and storefronts. Seventeen years ago, the spirit of Fête de la Musique traveled across the Atlantic to inspire the first Make Music event in New York. The event has since grown and spread well beyond New York, with cities across the United States embracing the celebration each year on June 21 with thousands of musicians—ranging from amateurs to seasoned professionals and spanning all genres—delivering almost 5,000 free outdoor concerts across the United States. To better coordinate and enhance these widespread efforts, in 2014, Make Music organizers from across North America came together to establish the Make Music Alliance. This organization aims to nurture and expand the reach of Make Music Day across the continent. Here’s a guide to some invaluable tools and platforms for music educators planning to celebrate Make Music Day.
Make Music Day website - https://makemusicday.org/
This is the main website for Make Music Day and you will find TONS of information about all of the events that are happening on June 21st - in both your community and around the country and globe. In the Schedule tab, you’ll find information, links and images about events around the world. The Locations tab has information about live events that you can attend. For me, the Make Music New York events are with easy driving distance, and reflect the HUGE diversity of the New York City musical community. Across the Hudson River from where I live is another Make Music event, hosted by Risko Music. Here is a video that explains their involvement:
One of my favorite live events for Make Music Day is Sousapalooza. Since 2011, Make Music Chicago has pioneered 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. There are now eleven events across the US. Musicians come together to play eleven different Sousa marches - and all of the music is available as downloadable PDFs right HERE.
Don’t live in the US? Don’t worry - there are LOTS of other countries that celebrate Make Music Day, including the UK, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, and Ukraine!
Another VERY cool event happening today is called Pulsations, a name that translates to "heartbeats" from French. This event is the result of a collaboration between the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad, the Arab World Institute, and the Make Music Alliance. Musicians across the globe will connect their music—and their hearts—through a unique musical relay that spans multiple continents. The full program will be streamed live on the homepage of makemusicday.org starting at 3pm Paris time.
The relay will kick off in New Zealand and make its way through Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. This remarkable journey will be showcased through a 100% live online broadcast, allowing audiences worldwide to experience the performances. Pulsations will present musicians from 24 different countries in a series of free public concerts. Each group will perform a 10-minute set, concluding their performance with a distinctive "heartbeat" rhythm. This specific rhythm, composed by the acclaimed French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, serves a pivotal role in the relay. As one band finishes, the subsequent group from another country will pick up this heartbeat rhythm live, ensuring a seamless transition and continuous musical flow.
After four hours of this rich and rhythmic musical exchange, the livestream will culminate at the Arab World Institute in Paris. Here, Ibrahim Maalouf & The Trumpets of Michel-Ange will deliver a grand finale, performing a captivating hour-long set that promises to be a fitting climax to a day of global musical unity.
Whether you are still teaching or you’re enjoying your summer vacation, Make Music Day is a GREAT opportunity to remind your students, their parents, and the members of your school community of how important that act of music making really is. If there isn’t a Make Music Day event near your school, you can actually start your own! Just visit the Make Music Day Start a Chapter site and start organizing your own official event!
Happy Make Music Day 2024 everyone!