Grantee Spotlight
June 2012Make Music New York - Mass Appeal
Photo: NYC Guitar School
Since 2009, Make Music New York (MMNY) has pioneered a new participatory performance series called Mass Appeal as part of its popular, citywide outdoor music festival, taking place each year on June 21, the first day of summer. Mass Appeal brings together hundreds of musicians, from the amateur cellist to the professional accordionist, in single-instrument gatherings to play pieces written for their instrument. This year, with support from LMCC, MMNY will work with professional musicians who will lead Mass Appeal events in 20 Manhattan locations.
Mass Appeal is one of several projects produced by MMNY as part of the festival’s mission to create opportunities for impromptu, diverse music making. Mass Appeal builds fellowship among musicians and aims to remove barriers to participation to harness New York's unparalleled musical possibilities. The events give thousands of freelance and amateur musicians the chance to meet, play, and join a community of their colleagues. At the same time, Mass Appeal concerts are often significant artistic events. In 2009, Mass Appeal trombone concert was named one of the year's "ten memorable performances" by New Yorker critic, Alex Ross.
Some 2012 Mass Appeal highlights include:
- A world premiere choral piece by Philip Glass, open to all singers and conducted by Kent Tritle in Times Square
- Large-scale playalong blues/rock guitar gatherings in Union Square with Alex Skolnick and outside the 92nd Street Y with Chris Bergson and Nelson Riveros
- 64 toy pianos, playing “Kun” by Wendy May Chambers, in a 4-hour installation at the South Street Seaport, supported by LMCC's River to River Festival
- Central Park gathering with harmonica virtuoso, Jia-Yi He, with free harmonicas distributed to the first 100 participants
- US premiere of a long-lost Prokofiev sonata for multiple violins on Cornelia Street, led by Eva Allan, followed by a lecture by Prokofiev biographer, Simon Morrison
This year also marks the first time for Mass Appeal gatherings of mandolins (led by the New York Mandolin Orchestra), harps (led by Alyssa Reit), double reeds (led by Matt Sullivan), and recorders (led by Deborah Booth).
Now in its sixth year, Make Music New York, “the largest music event ever to grace Gotham” (Metro New York), is a unique festival encompassing over 1,000 free concerts in public spaces throughout the five boroughs of New York City, all on June 21. From 10 in the morning to 10 at night, musicians of all ages, creeds, and musical persuasions — from hip hop to opera, Latin jazz to punk rock — perform on streets, sidewalks, stoops, plazas, cemeteries, parks and gardens. MMNY takes place simultaneously with similar festivities in more than 460 cities around the world in a global celebration of music making.
Free
Dates & Times:
Thursday, June 21, 2012, 1PM–8:30PM
Locations found here
