BUILDINGS AND LANDMARKS ACROSS THE U.S. TO SHINE ORANGE ON JUNE 21 FOR MAKE MUSIC DAY

More than 40 iconic buildings and landmarks across the U.S. including Niagara Falls will turn orange in support of Make Music Day, the annual global celebration of music occurring on June 21. Featuring thousands of free outdoor concerts, performances, music lessons and jam sessions nationwide, the all-day musical celebration on the summer solstice will be held in over 100 U.S. cities and the entire states of Connecticut, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and Wisconsin. This year’s event, which will further showcase music’s power to connect, comfort, unite and uplift, is returning to a mostly in-person experience after last year’s pivoted to a largely virtual one due to the pandemic. Safety protocols will remain in place.

Completely different from a traditional music festival, Make Music Day celebrates and promotes the natural music maker in all of us, regardless of age, ethnicity, background or skill level. Make Music Day is a free and open invitation for everyone to make, enjoy, perform, teach, learn and experience the joy of making music on the longest day of the year.

Launched in France in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique, Make Music Day has become a global phenomenon, observed by hundreds of millions of people in over 1,000 cities in 120 countries. Make Music Day is presented in the U.S. by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance.

U.S. buildings and landmarks shining orange — a color evoking the sun and the first day of summer — will include:

• The World Trade Center Oculus 

• Niagara Falls in Buffalo (NY)

• City Hall in Portland (ME)

• Stilts Tower in Hartford (CT)

• Waterbury Palace Theater Marquee in Waterbury (CT)

• Cira Centre, Cira Garage, FMC Tower, One Liberty Place and Two Liberty Place in Philadelphia (PA)

• Gulf Tower, Koppers Tower and One Oxford Centre in Pittsburgh (PA)

• Prudential Plaza and 875 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago (IL)

• Milwaukee County Historical Society and the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee (WI)

• Overture Center for the Arts in Madison (WI)

• I-35W Bridge, Lowry Avenue Bridge, 100 Washington Square and 111 Washington Square in Minneapolis (MN)

• Several city parks fountains in Kansas City (MO)

• Liberty Tower and The Block in Chattanooga (TN)

• RSA buildings in Montgomery (AL) and Mobile (AL)

• City Hall in Houston (TX)

• City Hall and the Visitor Information Center in Las Cruces (NM)

• McNichols Civic Center in Denver (CO)

• City Hall in Beverly Hills (CA)

• Union Street Railroad Bridge in Salem (OR)

• Columbia Center and the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle (WA)

• Aloha Tower in Honolulu (HI)

Make Music Day highlights in the U.S. will include This Moment in Time, gong performances memorializing the lives lost to COVID; Flowerpot Music featuring a performance on an unlikely but beautiful percussion instrument: the flowerpot; Junkophonics workshops where people can build wind, percussion and string instruments out of found objects; and Leaf Music programs in which people everywhere are urged to find their favorite tree and try the most common uncommon instrument: the leaf.

Additional highlights are Mass Appeal that bring people together to make music in 150+ large, single-instrument groups, and MixMash Studios in which the public is invited to send in short recordings of bass lines, barking dogs, vocals, machine noises, or anything else they find intriguing, and then producers will create an original piece using only those samples, and nothing more.

Among other featured national programs are a Music Lesson Marathon in which master musicians will be offering 12 hours of live, free online group lessons, a #MySongIsYourSong global song swap, The American Song capturing the stories and experiences of ordinary people in all 50 U.S. states, a Track Meet where teams of four musicians race against the clock to create brand new original tracks in a creative relay, Window Serenades where musicians will share the joy of live music with isolated elderly people by playing outside nursing home windows for those who request a song, and the debut of the Young Composers Contest winning pieces.

Simultaneously with the U.S. events, Make Music Day will be celebrated globally. Make Music Day UK, in partnership with Beyond Skin and the John Cage Trust, will debut a series of videos from around the world showing performances of John Cage’s silent composition, 4’33”, along with hundreds of more traditional concerts and music workshops. In Lagos, Nigeria, highlights include a “New Music Marathon” where radio stations play songs that have never before been broadcast, and “Pop-up Worship,” a gospel music songwriting camp for youth.

Elsewhere, Australia will stage backyard and balcony concerts and street performances countrywide, Make Music Cyprus will feature concerts throughout the old city of Nicosia, and 400+ Italian cities will participate, one highlight being a performance at Castello Sforzesco in Milan by Italian rock star Eduardo Bennato. Additionally, MMD celebrations will be held for the first time in Mexico (at venues in Mexico City and Cuernavaca) and in South Africa (in Durban).

At www.makemusicday.org on June 21, a 12-hour Global Livestream will show highlights of these Make Music Day programs, and many others, as they unfold around the world.

All Make Music Day events are free and open to the public. Participants who wish to perform, or to host musical events, may register at www.makemusicday.org. A full schedule of virtual and in-person events will be posted on the website in early June.

The official hashtag is #MakeMusicDay.

For editorial photos of previous MMD events click here.

About Make Music Day

Held annually on June 21 to coincide with the summer solstice, Make Music Day is part of the international Fête de la Music taking place in more than 1,000 cities across 120 countries. The daylong, musical free-for-all celebrates music in all its forms, encouraging people to band together and play in free public concerts. This year, over 100 U.S. cities and the entire states of Connecticut, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and Wisconsin are organizing Make Music celebrations, encompassing thousands of music making opportunities nationwide. Make Music Day is presented by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance. For more information, please visit www.makemusicday.org

Participating U.S. Make Music Cities in 2021

Albuquerque (NM), Allen (TX), Anaheim (CA), Appleton (WI), Austin, (TX), Avon Lake (OH), Barron (WI), Beaumont (TX), Beverly Hills (CA), Big Bear Lake (CA), Black Hills (SD), Bridgeport (CT), Charleston (SC), Charlotte (NC), Chattanooga (TN), Chequamegon Bay (WI), Chicago (IL), Cincinnati (OH), Columbia (SC), Crystal Lake (IL), Dallas (TX), Danbury (CT), Darke County (OH), Davis (CA), Decatur (AL), Denton (TX), Denver (CO), El Paso (TX), Englewood (NJ), Fairfield (CT), Federal Way (WA), Fitchburg (WI), Gallup (NM), Gig Harbor (WA), Green Bay (WI), Hartford (CT), Hastings (MN), Hebron (CT), Houston (TX), Issaquah (WA), Ithaca (NY), Kansas City (MO), Kenosha (WI), Knoxville (TN), La Crosse (WI), Lancaster (PA), Land O’ Lakes (WI), Las Cruces (NM), Liberty (MO), Los Angeles (CA), Macon (GA), Madison (WI), Marshfield (WI), Miami (FL), Middletown (CT), Milford (CT), Milwaukee (WI), Montclair (NJ), Montgomery (AL), Nashville (TN), Newark (NJ), New Haven (CT), New York (NY), Nicholasville (KY), Northwestern (CT), Norwalk (CT), Orange (CA), Ossining (NY), Palm Beach County (FL), Pensacola (FL), Peoria (AZ), Philadelphia (PA), Phoenix (AZ), Pittsburgh (PA), Platteville (WI), Portland (ME), Provo (UT), Rolla (MO), Roselle Park (NJ), Ridgefield (CT), St. Louis (MO), Salem (OR), San Jose (CA), Santa Fe (NM), Seattle (WA), Southeast (CT), Stamford (CT), Stratford (CT), Temecula (CA), Toledo (OH), Topanga (CA), Tucson (AZ), Twin Cities (MN), Ventura County (CA), Waterbury (CT), Waunakee (WI), Yonkers (NY) and the entire states of Connecticut, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and Wisconsin.