If you are traveling in one of 10 states before Christmas and bump into outdoor performances by musicians, you don’t need to wonder why they have forsaken winter temperatures. It will be a planned event, Make Music Winter, during the Dec. 21 winter solstice.
About 1,200 musicians are expected to perform at 40 Make Music Winter gatherings in 15 cities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Georgia. It will be the 15th year for the annual event.
“Make Music Winter aims to unite members of the public to make music together in communities across the country,” says Aaron Friedman, the executive director of the Make Music Alliance. “These are not traditional concerts, where you are supposed to come and listen quietly. As the name suggests, the idea really is to make music.”
Many of the 40 events will be performed entirely by nonmusicans. Some will ring color-coded handbells, some will sing carols and some will play percussion instruments. Other events will feature amateur and professional musicians.
“Coming together with strangers from different walks of life and making music together gives a really special feeling of joy and connection,” Friedman explains. “While political forces often pull communities apart, Make Music Winter helps bring people together, and I feel that makes the nation a better place.”
The winter solstice musical event is an offshoot of Make Music Day, which began in France on June 21, 1982, the summer solstice, and now takes place worldwide on June 21 every year. On that day this year, more than 5,400 free musical events were held in 147 U.S. cities.
“When we decided to create a companion event for the winter, we thought the winter solstice, Dec. 21, made the most sense,” Friedman says. “Some of our local chapters balk at the idea of organizing an outdoor event in the dead of winter, but we feel that the shortest day of the year is when joy and music are needed the most. Even in freezing temperatures, most events see a sizable turnout.”
Spectators at various events may see performers marching and dancing, while singing and playing instruments, through streets, plazas, parks and other public spaces. At many of the events, spectators will be welcome to join in.
The cities and towns where Make Music Winter events will be held this year are: Los Angeles, Oakland and Big Bear in California; New York City and Ossining in New York; Montclair, New Jersey; Chattanooga and Germantown in Tennessee; Cable and Platteville in Wisconsin; Macon, Georgia; Fairfield, Connecticut; Muskogee, Oklahoma; Salem, Oregon, and Gig Harbor, Washington.
The events scheduled for New York City, for example, are extensive. Manhattan’s Astor Place will be the venue for a Ukulele Caroling program by Gwendolyn Fitz. The performance will be followed by a Bell By Bell program with New Yorkers ringing in the holidays with dozens of color-coded handbells and a team of conductors orchestrating specially commissioned music.
At Manhattan’s Herald Square, Kevin Nathaniel’s Kalimba Unity Groove Experience will encourage public participation with jam-friendly instruments. At The High Line, an elevated walkway on the west side, “an immersive, site-specific soundwalk” called The Gaits is scheduled. It aims to transform participants’ movements into musical improvisations with a custom smartphone app. At the southern entrance of The High Line, harmonica virtuoso Jiayi He will lead a Holiday Harmonica Jam.
In Manhattan’s Riverside Park, a procession of headlamp-clad singers led by conductor James John will sing medieval melodies once sung on a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. They will be followed by British composer Pete Wyer’s performance of “Whatever Happens Next.” Elsewhere, conductor Douglas Anderson and producer Melissa Gerstein will lead an annual Mobile Hallelujah, gathering participants to sing the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall, Columbus Circle, Grand Central Terminal, Lincoln Center, the New York Public Library, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Times Square.
In Brooklyn, the 12th annual Flatfoot Flatbush returns with dancers, fiddlers and pickers parading down Flatbush Avenue playing old-time tunes while flatfooting (a form of percussive dancing from Appalachia). In the Bronx, the 11th annual Melrose Parranda celebrates Puerto Rico’s musical culture with a procession led by members of the borough’s music and cultural community.
About a 14-hour drive south in Chattanooga, Tennessee, organziers will use “a passport” to guide participants through the city’s musical landscape at their own pace. Five churches will present Christmas music, including the full-length cantata “Hope Awakes in Bethlehem.” Scenic City Burlesque will present Music in Motion Pole Ballet, the 1885 Grill will host a musical brunch and live music will resound for last-minute holiday shoppers at The Commons.