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Make Music Day DMV

03/04/2020 11:03 AM | Kelly Diamond (Administrator)

Make Music Day DMV seeks venues, voices, volunteers with vision and musicians of every kind for the June 21st celebration.

An outbreak of music has been predicted for Sunday, June 21st throughout the DC, MD, VA area and the only cure is to listen and enjoy.
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Make Music Day, the annual global celebration of music occurring on the summer solstice, is a daylong musical free-for-all that brings musicians of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels together to make, enjoy, perform, teach and learn music. The Songwriters’ Association of Washington (SAW, saw.org) has picked up the gauntlet for Make Music Day celebrations in DC, Maryland, and Virginia and will be spearheading the 2020 festival, and we are now recruiting key volunteers and partners.

We have already started to organize Make Music Day DMV into a truly unique celebration that honors the diversity of our local music scene and showcases how music can bring us all together, and are now recruiting key volunteers. If you have a passion for live music of every kind, the space, the time, we need you. Won’t you join our team and help us celebrate the universal language that speaks to us all…music?

We have several events in the works already, and we encourage you to suggest and offer all ideas that are in the spirit of the celebration. This is a free day of music so venues, musicians and organizers may not be charged or ask for money to perform or manage a venue. Typically, Make Music Day events fall into one of these categories:
- Live performances
- Open Jam sessions
- Events that focus on a single instrument, theme, or group performance of a well-known piece
- Participatory workshops

Keep reading to find out about past Make Music Day events in the DMV and throughout the world. Last year, more than 1,000 cities in 120 countries participated, for a total of over 5,000 free outdoor concerts, music lessons, jam sessions and other magnificent music-making events.

Our local efforts are supported and coordinated by the national nonprofit Make Music Alliance, including access to an online matchmaking software that connects performers to venues, publicity, general consulting and other assistance. The Make Music Day website is not quite ready to go but will be soon. Please contact us at makemusicday@saw.org for more information and to get involved.

About Make Music Day

Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music Day celebrates and promotes the natural music maker in all of us, regardless of ability. Reimagining their cities and towns as stages, every kind of musician – young and old, amateur and professional, of every musical persuasion – pours onto streets, parks, plazas, porches, rooftops, gardens and other public spaces to celebrate, create and share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers.

Launched in France in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique, Make Music Day is presented in the U.S. by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance. In addition to massive citywide celebrations, Make Music Day will also include smaller festivities in other communities nationwide.

Highlights of past Make Music Day events in the U.S. include:

  • Thousands of free, live performances, many held outside. Past DMV venues include the National Mall, Clarendon Central Park (an all-day festival with 2 stages of continuous music), Dupont Circle, Tenleytown Main Street, and parks, restaurants, retail establishments and other venues throughout the area.
  • Street Studios, where world-class DJs and producers set up their gear on sidewalks and engage passersby and musicians to join in an entirely improvised music creation session; 
  • Sousapaloozas bring together brass and wind musicians to play the music of "March King" John Philip Sousa;
  • Mass Appeals that gather large groups of musicians to participate in impromptu performances using single instruments such as guitars, harmonicas, accordions, ukuleles, bucket drumming, double basses, kazoos, choral singers, and pBuzzes.
  • Bands Undercover, where bands take to the streets to cover each other's music, and live stream their performances to each other in a unique musical exchange.
  • Drum Set Duos, organized by local drum shops, who place full drum sets on the sidewalk or parking lot in front of their store. A facilitator sits at one of the sets and invites passersby to join in a spontaneous drum set duo.
  • Heart Chant, where people come together to perform a type of meditation that involves vocalization and listening. The Heart Chant was written by Pauline Oliveros in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

All Make Music Day events are free and open to the public. Once the Make Make Music Day website is ready (sometime in March), participants who wish to perform may register. A full schedule of events will be posted on the website in early June.

To get involved and for more information, please contact us at makemusicday@saw.org or washington@makemusicday.org.

Follow Make Music Day DMV on social media:
Facebook: facebook.com/MakeMusicDayDC/
Twitter: @MakeMusicDayDC
Instagram: @makemusicdaydc

Contact:      makemusicday@saw.org or washington@makemusicday.org

Songwriters' Association of Washington is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

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