Make Music Winter — the free, outdoor musical celebration with exuberant and participatory processions and performances throughout New York City — today announced the lineup for its winter solstice programs on Thursday, December 21. These revelries on the shortest day of the year bring together people of all musical abilities and styles to play, sing, march and dance their way through streets, plazas, parks, and other shared public spaces.
First launched in 2011 as a complement to the annual Make Music New York on June 21, Make Music Winter has grown to include events in more than 20 other cities around the country, from Muskogee to Montclair. Nationally, Make Music Winter is presented by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance.
New York City’s flagship Make Music Winter will debut several new projects this season, including:
Kalimba Magic: renowned kalimba master Kevin Nathaniel leads a workshop in Madison Square Park from 1:30pm – 3:00pm that delves into the history, styles and techniques of playing the instrument. Following the workshop, he will lead participants on a performance procession to transform the park pathways into a tranquil musical oasis. Presented in partnership with the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
Tilted Axes: The Longest Night: Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars, led by composer and performer Patrick Grant, is an orchestra of guitarists performing original, untethered music via portable mini-amps. This year’s program, running from 5:00pm – 6:00pm at The Hugh Plaza (601 Lexington Avenue at E 53rd St), has three numbers — including Philip Glass’s “Knee Play 3” from Einstein on the Beach — with participatory handbell roles to transform the audience into music makers, no experience necessary. Presented in partnership with BXP.
Roomful of Pianos: “23 Mixed Nuts”: conductor Zane Myers leads an adapted version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, performed simultaneously by students of all ages on multiple pianos (up to ten at a time!). The festivities, from 7:00pm – 8:00pm will take place at PianoPiano Rehearsal Studios, 37 W 65th Street, 4th Floor, and will include a visit from Duo Mundi and other surprise guests. Presented in partnership with the New York State Music Teachers Association (District 1 Manhattan-Bronx).
Over a dozen popular and updated celebrations also return this season, including:
- Gaits: A High Line Soundwalk: this immersive, site-specific procession features commissioned music by Lainie Fefferman, Jascha Narveson and Cameron Britt in which the wonders of our everyday technology transform participants’ movements into musical improvisations. Paraders walk along the High Line from 5:30pm – 7:00pm, departing from the Gansevoort Stairs at Gansevoort and Washington Streets, using a free app that captures their GPS coordinates and velocities to trigger a variety of twinkling metallic sounds, electric guitar chords, dulcimer notes, water splashes, car horns and applause – empowering marchers to effortlessly make music while interacting with their environment and each other. The “Gaits” app has been newly updated to include the entire length of The High Line since the completion of the northern extension. Presented in partnership with the Friends of the High Line.
- Bell by Bell: New Yorkers will (literally) ring in the winter season at Astor Place Plaza from 6:00pm – 7:00pm, in a celebration designed to transform first time participants into music makers — a perfect program for kids and families. Dozens of color-coded handbells that play different notes will be distributed to all, and after a crash course, a team of conductors will wave matching color-coded flags, prompting revelers to collectively perform commissioned compositions that intensify as the group learns to play together. This season features the world premiere of a new handbell score, Gradient, by interdisciplinary composer and artists Nat Evans. Presented in partnership with the Village Alliance.
- Mobile Hallelujah: between 6:00pm – 8:00pm, dozens of participating singers will wend their way across seven iconic outdoor landmarks throughout Midtown — from the main branch of the New York Public Library to Lincoln Center Plaza — to sing the famously uplifting “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, using smartphones to keep in sync and in tune and surprising passersby with seemingly spontaneous outbursts of the most famous choral piece in history.
Additional Make Music Winter events in Manhattan include a performance by percussionists and vocalists from the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at the Uptown Grand Central plaza in East Harlem, HONK NYC’s Radiant Revelry for brass and percussion at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, Harmonica Holiday Jam at Bryant Park, and an a cappella Pilgrimage along Riverside Park from W 86 Street to W 99th Street.
In Brooklyn, Flatfoot Flatbush will feature dancers, fiddlers, and pickers parading down Flatbush Avenue playing old-time tunes while flatfooting, a form of percussive dancing from Appalachia, while Ukulele Caroling will gather players of all levels at Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch. In Queens, the Cumbia Parade will march along Roosevelt Avenue, with a finale at Diversity Plaza, in Jackson Heights. And in the Bronx, the Bronx Music Heritage Center presents Melrose Parranda for the ninth consecutive year, bringing this Puerto Rican caroling tradition to different casitas and community gardens throughout the neighborhood. The complete lineup of NYC celebrations, including times, meeting locations, routes and details on how to register to participate, is available at www.MakeMusicNY.org.
Across the U.S., other Make Music Winter events on December 21 will pop up in communities large and small. In Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo neighborhood, pianist George Ko will ask people who they are shopping for, and what message they’d like to convey, and George will write a new, giftable song for them on the spot. Twenty gongs will ring in a parade in Auburn, California, while nearly 40 gongs will form a Resonant Path at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, IL. Music stores in Crystal Lake IL and Duluth GA will bring together local pianists for colossal Roomful of Pianos performances. And twelve independent music stores are hosting String Together, where beginning guitarists learn to change their guitar strings (with free strings donated by D’Addario), get a free lesson from a local teacher, and have a chance to play together. String Together events will take place in Albuquerque NM, Auburn AL, Jeffersonville IN, Louisville KY, Milwaukee WI, North Royalton OH, Ossining NY, Pittsburgh PA, Salem OR, State College PA, Washington DC, and Williamsport PA.
From ukulele jams to caroling parties, many more Make Music Winter programs are being planned around the country. All information about events and participating cities will be posted as details are confirmed at www.makemusicwinter.org.