Get ready to rock out NYC!
Make Music New York is ready to celebrate its 10-year anniversary with an epic array of free outdoor concerts on June 21 to kick off summer. As always all people can take part of Make Music Day. The following special events have just been added to increase the excitement.
First up we have Glass on Water, featuring two complete performances of Glass’s set of 20 Etudes for piano. The composer himself will perform an Etude, followed by more than 40 additional student performers under the age of 18, from public and private schools around NYC. The performances will take place on Pier I Café, at West 70th Street and Riverside. A seven-foot Yamaha piano will be provided by Piano Piano. The event is part of Summer on the Hudson.
A new addition to Make Music Day this year is Uptown Funk, a walking tour of Harlem establishments featuring soul, funk and jazz in partnership with the Harlem Arts Festival and several neighborhood establishments. Local talent will grace the streets and public spaces throughout the area to create a lively, walkable route filled with diverse interpretations of “funk.” Stop by at any of these eleven Harlem venues on June 21st between 11am and 9pm: Angel of Harlem, Billie’s Black Gourmet Soul, Corner Social, MIST, Silvana, The Cecil Walls-Ortiz Gallery and Center, Urban Garden Center, The Shrine, Harlem Tavern, and Lolo’s Seafood Shack.
People will also get a chance to participate in free guitar lessons given by NYC’s local celebrity The Naked Cowboy. Participants will pick up a few pointers and a choice between 50 guitar teachers located in the pedestrian plazas around Times Square. Between 1pm and 5pm, they will give free fifteen-minute lessons to all comers, sponsored by Fender.
Last year’s Exquisite Corpses improve relay at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx was a major highlight of the festival. This year MMNY brings back this musical game based on a Surrealist concept, at the First Shearith Israel Graveyard – the oldest cemetery from the earliest Jewish congregation in North America, and the only surviving 17th-century structure in Manhattan. Jeremiah Lockwood (grandson of cantorial legend Rabbi Jacob Konigsberg, and himself a virtuosic musical iconoclast) will host a gathering at the cemetery, directing participants in a series of improvised duets. Anyone can take part, either by RSVP’ing to reserve a spot, or showing up on June 21st between 4pm and 5:30pm and stepping in.
MC/Beat Boxer/Educator, Baba Israel and the one-man band Yako 440 will rock out in front of the Museum of American Finance at 48 Wall St. Starting at 5pm their freestyle rhymes will play on the history of gold, the legacy of Alexander Hamilton and interactions with museum goers.
PUBLIQuartet will perform a set of classic New York songs arranged by ten amazingly talented high school composers at the WTC Memorial Plaza. They will be performing well-known songs such as “New York, New York,” “Take The Train” and other favorites. The event, which is co-presented by the National September 11th Museum, starts at 6pm.
Lastly, Street Studio City will make a return this year to present audio collages from spontaneous performances on the street. On June 21, eight small mobile recording studios will appear on sidewalks throughout NYC. Coordinated by Make Music New York and Found Sound Nation, they will engage passersby and MMNY festival musicians in the spontaneous, collaborative production of original music. Each street studio will be run by a team of two DJ-engineers. One person will focus on mixing and recording the live sounds, and interacting with the public who stop by to sing, play an instrument, or record sounds that become part of the musical track.
The Make Music New York is free to the public and does not require any tickets. More information on performances and times can be found here!