Philip Glass, Kingsmen to Participate in Global Make Music Day
Philip Glass, members of the Kingsmen and Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase will partake in three of the thousands of events planned for the annual, global Make Music Day on June 21st.
Over 35 cities in the United States, plus the entire state of Vermont, will host Make Music events, which are free and open to the public. Founded in 1982 in France, Make Music encourages people everywhere to pick up instruments through an eclectic mix of pre-planned and spontaneous, all-inclusive performances. Make Music will also host hundreds of Mass Appeals, where musicians are invited to gather and perform in large, single-instrument groups.
Glass, the esteemed composer, is set to take the stage at Riverside Park where he and 19 students from New York City’s public schools will perform pieces from his Etudes for piano. Meanwhile at New York’s Madison Square Park, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Chase will lead a performance of his new piece, “Shimmer,” which was scored for 16 or more Zildjian cymbals; troupes in Boston, Chicago and Nashville will also perform the piece. And on the West Coast, members of rock & roll pioneers the Kingsmen will perform their 1963 classic “Louie Louie” on the steps of the Oregon capitol building in Salem.
Among the other Make Music events is a country-wide competition for woodwind, brass and string players to play the fastest, most accurate version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” (participants can enter through a special free version of SmartMusic). In Chicago, Cleveland and New York, brass and wind musicians will gather for another Sousapalooza, playing the tunes of marching band maestro John Philip Sousa. And in Auburn, Alabama, high school marching bands, drum lines, community choirs and others will gather for a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”
In Bangalore, Budapest, Munich, Tel Aviv, New York and Los Angeles, Found Sound Nation and the audio products company Harman will set up “Street Studios” in public spaces and invite passersby to participate in improvised sessions. And baseball fans attending the Staten Island Yankees’ minor league game and the collegiate Madison Mallards’ game in Madison, Wisconsin will partake in mass performances of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” using boomwhackers, which are pitched hollow pipes made of plastic.
A complete list of participating cities as well as a rundown of Make Music events across the world is available to peruse on the event’s website.