On Friday (June 21), this year's Make Music Day will kick off at the Fairfield, Conn., town pavilion, where Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz will ceremonially beat a handmade rallying drum. The day's activities, which begin at 9 a.m. ET (3 p.m. in France), will feature a real-time musical relay with musicians in 24 countries over the course of four hours.
The overall Make Music Day event will be celebrated in 120 countries with a total of 5,000 concerts and music events taking place on the day. The celebrations seek to bring out the musician in all of us, regardless of skill level, with outdoor concerts, jams, classes and musical performances of all kinds.
Make Music Day is presented by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation. The concept was conceived by Jack Lang when he was France's Minister of Culture.
The global webcast, called Pulsations, will be streamed online at makemusicday.org Home. It will feature musicians from various countries playing a 10-minute set of their choice, ending in a heartbeat. As one set ends, the next will raise the heart rate to a different country, allowing for a seamless transition between musicians. The pulses will start in Auckland, New Zealand and end in Paris.
“Since its inception in France in 1982, Make Music Day has transcended borders to become an international event,” said Pulsations organizers Dominique Hervieu (director of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad) and Lang (now president of Arab World Institute) statement. “Make Music Day aims to give a global dimension to this special day focused on music, widely regarded as the world's most unifying art form…. The Pulsations project reflects our collective values, promoting camaraderie, peace and mutual respect worldwide.”
The heartbeat that serves as the connective tissue is composed by Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, according to a press release announcing the festival. The global online performance will culminate with a live stream at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, where Ibrahim Maalouf & The Trumpets of Michel-Ange will perform an hour-long set to close the four-hour musical relay.
Performers during the music broadcast will include AR Rahman, who will perform live from the KM Music Conservatory in India. Funk-pop group TOI in New Zealand, who will sing “Ain't Just Dreaming”, which was a chart hit in that country. Dwight Trible, who will perform with the Fernando Pullum Youth Arts Center Jazz Ensemble in Los Angeles. and folk-rock duo Twin Flames performing at Hugh's Room Live in Toronto.
In addition to the online portion, the global festival will be shown live on large public screens in several participating cities, including Paris, Toronto and Hannover, Germany.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/make-music-day-2024-1235713169/