Now in its sixth year, Make Music New York, “the largest music event ever to grace Gotham” (Metro New York), is a unique festival of free concerts in public spaces throughout the five boroughs of New York City, all on June 21st, the first day of summer. MMNY takes place simultaneously with similar festivities in more than 460 cities around the world — a global celebration of music making.
The next Make Music New York is on Thursday, June 21, 2012.
Over 850 MMNY concerts took place in 2008, 875 in 2009, 1,080 in 2010, and 1,035 in 2011. Recent highlights include:
- New York’s first open-air performance of Xenakis’s Persephassa, with the audience listening from rowboats in the Central Park Lake, surrounded by percussionists.
- Over 70 punk bands playing throughout Governors Island (nicknamed “Punk Island” for the day).
- 12 funk concerts by Christian McBride, Pimps of Joytime, Burnt Sugar, and others for the inmates on Rikers Island (“Funk Island”)
- A Lincoln Square block party, with performances by the NYC Opera, NY Philharmonic, Jazz at Lincoln Center, ASCAP, American Composers Orchestra, and American Opera Projects.
- An historic “Griot Summit” with dozens of West African musicians at Wave Hill in the Bronx.
- New Orleans-style Second Line jazz parades across three Manhattan neighborhoods, led by the Jazz Gallery, Hungry March Band, and Jazzmobile.
- A sing-it-yourself performance of Mozart’s Coronation Mass in the Meatpacking District, conducted by Kent Tritle.
A unique festival of free concerts in public spaces throughout New York City, all on the first day of summer.
In 2011, Make Music New York launched a winter solstice festival called Make Music Winter, with 12 participatory musical parades on December 21st. The next Make Music Winter will take place on Friday, December 21, 2012.