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On December 21, Make Music New York once again floods public spaces with live music and merriment. Best known for its flagship summer show, MMNY returns for its fourth cold-weather edition and combines updates to MM favorites with a few new twists.
One of the additions is Flatfoot Flatbush, in which dancers and fiddlers will parade down Flatbush playing jumping folk tunes and partaking in "flatfooting," a traditional dance that comes from Appalachia. Don't worry if you're unfamiliar—the event begins with a flatfooting workshop at the Brooklyn Public Library.
Williamsburg hosts the first Brooklyn Kalimbascope, a trek from Cooper Park to McCarren Park, which highlights the kalimba, a traditional African instrument sometimes known as a thumb piano. The first 20 paraders get to borrow kalimbas, but everyone else is invited the join in the percussive parade too, banging and clanging on whatever you feel like.
Wheels will gather cyclists to perform an original piece for bicycle bells by composer Nissim Schaul. Packs of riders will travel through Prospect Park, "following a score transmitted from the lead bike via a special helmet preprogrammed with lights that cue bicycle bells of different pitches." That's some crazy coordination.
This year's fest also features the first Lightmotif, conceived by composer Hiroya Miura and inspired by a Japanese winter solstice ceremony. The piece features brass and bagpipe players, who stage a coordinated call-and-response performance that traces the path of the shadow of Long Island City’s Citibank. Yep, we're as baffled as you are, but mighty intrigued.
In addition to the new events, many MM classics like Winterize and the Gaits will be back. For more info and a full schedule of events, check out the Make Music website.