Who: All MMNY participants past and present! Join us at our first-ever MMNY Prelude Party!

What: Party and schmoozing

When: Wednesday, June 5th, 6-9pm

Where: Freddy’s Bar, 627 5th Ave, Brooklyn (R to Prospect Ave)

Why: NYC is huge, and MMNY is spread out — let’s get everyone together in one place! Come meet and mingle with your fellow MMNY participants, and pick up materials for June 21.

Come early for drink specials by Brooklyn Gin, Radeberger, and Freddy’s spectacular bartenders, and stay late to join us for an open mic from 8-9 pm. (Bring your instrument and sign up when you arrive!)

More info and RSVP on facebook.

About Freddy’s

Make Music New York is thrilled to be pairing up with Freddy’s Bar for our first-ever Prelude Party! Freddy’s Bar is an iconic & unique mainstay in the Brooklyn nightlife & music scene. The beautiful old bar has free live music & events nightly in its backroom, a backyard with free barbecues, a cat you can’t out-drink, cheap prices on premium beverages, famous videos 24/7, and a kitchen (open until 2am) featuring what they call “Pan-Brooklyn.”

Esquire Magazine has named Freddy’s one of the best bars in America, and the Village Voice said “Freddy’s hosts some of the city’s most original readings & performances.” For event listings and more details go to freddysbar.com.

Looking forward to meeting many of you there!

Sincerely,

Aaron, Clara, Nina, and the rest of the team

Due largely to its demands of 50+ performers, several unconventional instruments, a pipe organ, and necessarily open-minded interpreters, the piece is rarely performed. And it’s never been performed in its complete form in NYC — until now!

We’re looking for percussionists, vocalists and dancers to participate in this history-making seven hour performance, which will travel through seven plazas along the South Street Seaport. Sign up to participate here!

And, for more information about the piece’s seven chapters, head over to Mantra Percussion’s Cornelius Cardew resources site.

302 venues and 652 artists have already signed up to take part in MMNY 2013! We hope that you are one of them.

If not, it’s not too late to join the June 21 musical festivities.

If your band or venue wants to join Make Music New York 2013, this is your last chance!

You have until Monday to create a MMNY concert. Sign in and finalize your plans today!

If you have any questions, read our handy FAQ. If that doesn’t help, we’re available to troubleshoot any remaining problems, make updates to the schedule, and connect registered musicians with additional locations. Email help@makemusicny.org at any time, or call us at 917-779-9709 between 10am and 7pm.

Monday, April 29th is the last day to finalize all MMNY2013 plans. But don’t wait ’till Monday, because by then the location or performer you’re looking for might already be booked!

First step is to go to the match making site to register. Once you register, you can create an artist profile or a venue profile (or both!) Then, you can match up with a location or artist on the website, or make your own arrangements offline and then input them on the site. It’s easy and completely free.

Musicians, be sure to read this handy FAQ which explains what you need to do to finalize your MMNY2013 performance plans.

And, if you still have questions, we’re available all this week to troubleshoot any remaining problems, make updates to the schedule, and connect registered musicians with additional locations. Email us at any time, or call us at 917-779-9709 between 9am and 6pm.

This year, MMNY is teaming up with The Americas Society to present Credo, the 1976 piece by iconic Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer.

At 5 pm on June 21, 144 singers will get into rowboats and sing Credo from a circular configuration on the lake. This concert-length work will be conducted by George Steel and Steven Fox, with the audience listening from other boats and from the shore.

Are you a vocalist, or have a chorus interested in participating? Let us know by May 15th! Email Clara with your name, email, phone number and voice part by 5/15 and we’ll include you. And read on for more details, including the rehearsal schedule.

ABOUT CREDO

As part of our popular Mass Appeal series, this year MMNY will present the world premiere of a composition by pianist Jed Distler. The piece is for 175 battery-powered Yamaha keyboards and will be hosted on Cornelia Street in the West Village. Following the performance, Yamaha will donate all of the keyboards to the New York City Department of Education.

(The performance will set a new Guinness Book record for the world’s largest keyboard ensemble!)

Join us in making musical history! The 30 minute piece will be performed twice, in the late morning and early afternoon. The music is extremely easy to perform and coordinate, and there are even parts for those without any keyboard skills!

Fill out this form to let us know you are interested in participating. And if you have questions, email Pierre.

This event is produced in collaboration with Composers Collaborative Inc, the Cornelia Street Cafe, and Yamaha.

As you know, the deadline to finalize your MMNY 2013 peformance plans is April 29th.

Why so soon, you might ask, when the festival isn’t until June? Well, we need to submit the final schedule to the City for approval in the beginning of May, and compile listings for our media partners to help promote your concert. That means you have two weeks to finalize concert plans, and spaces are going fast!

Please read this post carefully — it explains what you still need to do in order to perform in MMNY on June 21st.

And, thanks again for being part of Make Music New York. And, as always, don’t hesistate to email us with any questions you might have.

Three easy steps to finalizing your MMNY performance plans:

1. Complete your registration.

Many artists have signed up but have not yet completed the registration process. Until you’ve logged in and filled out your artist profile, you will not be able to join the festival.

To complete the process, first sign in at http://match.makemusicny.org/.

Click on the tab for My Artist, and create or update your artist profile. Don’t forget to upload an image, too.

(Some artists have reported difficulty signing in. We hope we’ve caught all the glitches, but if you are still experiencing problems with registering and login, email us at help@makemusicny.org and Nina wil help you out!)

2. Apply to locations.

The next step is to apply for a place to perform. Under your artist profile, you will see a button that says Find/Request Performances. Click on this button and you’ll see a list of locations that are looking to host artists, including more than 50 libraries that have just signed up.

Scroll through the venues and find one that matches your interests and performance needs. Many sidewalk locations have electricity; most parks do not. Venues that are looking for particular kinds of music list their preferences. In most cases, artists bring their own instruments and amps, but sometimes a venue will provide them. (If they can, they will have a made a note about it.)

Request performances at your chosen locations. We suggest applying to 4 or 5 locations, but be strategic about your requests. For example, won’t be able to confirm performances that are scheduled too close together, or clearly out of place with the venue’s own requests. If a venue is interested in having you, they will reply to your request.

3. Or, create your own location! (Recommended!)

Make Music New York is open to any musician, in any neighborhood. Really.

We can get you permits to play on almost any sidewalk in the five boroughs. Since New York City has 12,000 miles of sidewalks, there’s plenty of room for everyone.

If you’re having trouble finding the perfect spot for your music on our website, create your own. Acoustic musicians (i.e. those without electricity) can perform almost anywhere. If you need a place to plug in, you can perform in front of your NYC apartment and drop an extension cord out the window. Ask your friend’s store to give you electricity to play outside. Pick up the phone and call places you’ve already performed — a restaurant, church, senior center or concert hall — and ask if you can set up on the sidewalk with an extension cord out the door. If it’s OK with them, it’s OK with us.

Once you’ve lined this up — and again, you must do this before April 29 — sign in to the website, click on My Venue, and create a venue profile. Then, match your artist profile to the times you want at your venue. We’ll get in touch if we have any questions.

(Please note that this process won’t work to apply for parks, or for locations already listed on our website.)

We’re looking forward to an amazing MMNY 2013! And, again, don’t hesistate to email us with any questions you might have.

The deadline to finalize your MMNY plans is April 29th, just two weeks away!

Now is the time to confirm your performances plans on the registration site if you haven’t already.

This means confirming locations, confirming times, and updating your profile!

News flash: artists can nowupload an image to their profiles, which will be displayed on our online listings site. Log inand add yours!

On June 21st, all of the students and teachers will play together at a final MMNY concert, in front of family members and other inmates. The best students will be offered additional free weekly private lessons upon their release.

We gratefully acknowledge Remo for donating the instruments.

MMNY MUSICIANS MUST REGISTER BY APRIL 29th!

To make sure everyone has a chance to sign up, volunteers are calling last year’s musicians every evening starting Thursday, April 11.

Join one of our phone banks, from 6-9pm at our office on 419 Lafayette Street — meet other volunteers, talk to lots of musicians, and help the festival grow!

We’ll be making calls on these dates:

R.S.V.P. to clara@makemusicny.org with your name and phone number, and we will call back and schedule you to come in.

And, thanks!