The annual Make Music Day is set to return on Friday, June 21, 2024, with a spectacular global celebration spanning 120 countries and featuring over 5,000 concerts and music events.
This year’s festivities will kick off in Fairfield, Connecticut, where Talking Heads alumni Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz will ceremonially strike a handmade gathering drum to commence the day’s activities.
A highlight of the event is “Pulsations,” a four-hour musical relay featuring musicians from 24 countries. Beginning at 9 a.m. ET, the relay will be streamed live on makemusicday.org, showcasing 10-minute sets from various artists, each ending with a heartbeat rhythm composed by French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf.
Notable participants in the relay include:
- Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman, performing live from India’s KM Music Conservatory
- New Zealand funk-pop band TOI
- Jazz performer Dwight Trible with the Fernando Pullum Youth Arts Center Jazz Ensemble in Los Angeles
- Folk-rock duo Twin Flames in Toronto
The global event, presented by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, aims to bring out the musician in everyone, regardless of skill level. It will feature outdoor concerts, jam sessions, lessons, and various music-making activities.
Make Music Day organizers Dominique Hervieu and Jack Lang emphasized the event’s goal of promoting unity, peace, and mutual respect worldwide through music. The celebration will conclude with a live-streamed performance by Ibrahim Maalouf & The Trumpets of Michel-Ange at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.
This inclusive, border-transcending musical celebration promises to be a harmonious start to the summer of 2024, uniting people across the globe through the universal language of music.
