Make Music New York is back for its eighth year, celebrating the longest day of the year with more than 1,300 free concerts across the city on June 21. There are participatory events, live music in parks and plazas, unique gatherings in unusual places, and just about anything else you can think of. Below are only some of the highlights, arranged alphabetically.
After Dark: PBJ Edition, People’s Breukelen Jamwich, Breukelen Coffee House, open mic 8:00 – 10:00, round robin jams 10:00 – midnight
Berlioz Band: presentation of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, conducted by Jeff W. Ball, with all wind players regardless of skill level invited to participate with preregistration, Bryant Park, 3:00 & 4:30
Joe’s Pub Block Party: with Young Old Man, Todd Almond, Too Many Zooz, Bridget Barkan, Dahka Band, and more, 425 Lafayette St., 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Mass Appeal: meet-ups for eighteen instruments in eighteen locations, including accordions in City Hall Park, flutes in the Dalehead Arch in Central Park, gongs in Worth Square, guitars in Union Square, ukuleles in Madison Square Park, and found sound for John Cage’s “49 Waltzes” at 147 sites in all five boroughs
Porch Stomp: nearly three dozen live performances and workshops focusing on roots music, with anyone invited to join in, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 1:00 – 5:00
Punk Island: more than ninety punk bands, Coast Guard Pier, Staten Island, 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
Red Baraat’s 100+ BPM: Bhangra band led by Sunny Jain perform specially commissioned piece for NPR, joined by any and all brass players and percussionists, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, 4:30
The Sound of Downtown: And Death Shall Have No Dominion, a participatory singing event for a synchronized headphone choir, conceived and composed by Pete M. Wyer, with live music by the Asphalt Orchestra, converging on Rockefeller Park at 11:45 am
The Sound of Downtown: Digital Sanctuaries, a musical pilgrimage through Lower Manhattan, urban music mobile app walk by Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez, guided tours at 1:00 from India House, 3:00 from Peter Minuet Plaza, and 5:00 from Tear Drop Park