(Another installment in a series on Fête de la Musique worldwide) NB: Some text here has been translated from the Spanish by Clara.

Medellín.

Pablo Escobar.

Nothing else to it, right?

Wrong.

True, the city was once considered by some to be the most dangerous in the world. But if it were nothing but drugs and violence, then why would Patrick Deyvant, current Director of the Alianza Francesa in Medellín and steward of La Fiesta de la Música there, have headed to Medellín of his own accord?

“I decided myself to come to Colombia – I applied for the job” explained Patrick. “For the last eight years I was working in Asia, mostly in India – in Bombay. Before that I had worked also in Mexico for 5 years, and in Guatemala for 2 years. In Guatemala the situation was very difficult when I was there. And what I found very interesting was when you live in a country that has conflicts, like violence and war, the relations with people are much more intense, much more essential in a way. It’s part of the reason why I decided to come to Colombia.”

“And also,” he added, “because I met several people who had lived in Colombia and every one was talking so well about the people in Colombia and the life in Medellín.”

Patrick has lived in Medellín since 2009. I asked him if this perception of Medellín-as-Escobar that has so captured the USA’s media imagination still holds true.

Turns out, it doesn’t. And in fact, one of reasons it doesn’t is something we should sit up and take notice of: culture. It’s important, Patrick noted, to understand that “the policy of the Municipality [of Medellín] was to fight against the violence with culture. [The city] has built, for example, many libraries in very poor neighborhoods. It’s very important the work they are doing in these neighborhoods – kids have access to books, workshops, concerts, all for free. Medellín has really changed in the last few years; there are many foreigners working in the city, it’s much more open. Of course the violence still exists, but it’s not the same kind of violence we had twenty years ago. It’s much safer than before.” (A bit more reading on Medellín’s approach, if you’re interested.)

This practice of using culture to combat violence has interesting implications for the Fête in Medellín, which celebrates its ninth edition this June 18, 2011.

First, the festival serves as a point of unity for residents. Where in other cities the Fête tends towards fragmentation and intensely local celebration (as Evan and I discussed), in Medellín the Fiesta is instead an example of pride that is fiercely city-wide. According to Patrick, “[the Fiesta] is a way for the people to feel like the city belongs to them. In some parts of the city, the violence was very heavy – there are people who haven’t come back to the center of Medellín for some 20 years. So the Fiesta has helped people change their mind, and come back to the center of the city.”

This sense of belonging extends to the entire state of Antioquia. “We also have several smaller cities around Medellin [the Greater Metropolitan Area of Medellín comprises 10 cities total] which are involved in the Fiesta de la Música here in Medellín. [The Fiesta] involves the whole state of Antioquia. We give the possibility of bands coming from other cities to come to play in Medellín, and some bands from Medellin go to play in the other cities. We try to organize exchanges.”

Second, the ingrained emphasis on culture-as-benefit makes for a festival that is particularly dedicated to individual musicians. Unlike NYC, for example, La Fiesta de la Música in Medellín is organized around several “official” stages – co-sponsored by the Alianza Francesa and the Municipality of Medellín – that are installed in the most well-known spots around the city. Musicians must apply to play on these stages through the convocatoría, and “a jury with professional people working in the field of music in charge of making the selection of the groups [this jury is separate from the Alianza Francesa and the city].” This year, 226 bands submitted applications to the convocatoría – 89 of whom came from outside Medellín proper. 60 bands were selected, with seven hailing from the surrounding areas.

Although it seems to run counter to the spirit of the Fête de la Musique, this system of sponsoring official stages plays directly into the city’s interest in supporting culture as a way of improving quality of life. The benefits of playing on a stage are great: not only do these bands have access to professional equipment and sound engineering, but “after the festival, there’s a second selection process [from the bands who play the official stages] and we produce a CD. It’s an opportunity for the bands to have professional materials and be promoted through the city.”

At the same time, Patrick isn’t interested in micro-managing, and for him “it’s very important that people can spontaneously organize their own concerts and parties. The idea is to try to impose the energy of the Fiesta de la Música but we don’t want to control everything.” Thus, beyond the official stages, there is an “agreement with the Municipality that from 10 in the morning to 3 in the morning, musicians can play anywhere they want.” And play they do. The 2010 Fiesta featured some 80 bands and 1,200 musicians officially, and thousands more throughout the city.

Here’s a taste of the 2010 Fiesta. It’s in Spanish, but you almost don’t need to understand the language to get a sense of how beloved the festival is in Medellín, and a glimpse of the city’s rich musical culture:

And there’s a third interesting thing about the Fiesta de la Música in Medellín which takes the culture-as-unifier impulse global: it’s organized around a theme. Apparently, every year, the international Fête de la Musique is loosely tied to a theme, often inspired by or directly related the United Nation’s own yearly focus. (This, my friends, was news to me.)

“This year the international theme for the Fête is the music from Ultramar, because the United Nations has named 2011 the year of afro-descendants. So, we’ve interpreted that to be Afro-Caribbean music.” (Ultramar, or in French département d’outre-mer, is a collection of five French overseas departments – Guadaloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Reunión and, most recently, Mayotte – located in the Caribbean.)

The theme is an interesting one both for Medellín and for Patrick, for whom “it is very important to link the festival with the musical life of Medellín. I think it’s very important to pay attention to the local scene, what’s going on here, who is important in music, how we can involve them in the festival” he stressed. “This is what I have been trying to do with the Fiesta de la Música. I think it’s very important to not to be limited to French music but to be open to other kinds of music.”

In keeping with this goal, this year in addition to flying in some high-profile French musicians for the opening and the after party, Patrick is planning a tribute to Jairo Grisales Ángel and his band, Orquesta Nuevo Miramar, one of the most influential Colombian salsa musicians of the 20^th century.

The theme is also an opportunity to further the community-building aspect of art that Medellín is so inspired by. Though there is a great diversity in music-making in Medellín – “there are so many musicians in this area” stressed Patrick – salsa, and its Afro-Caribbean musical descendants, reigns supreme.  And yet, as Patrick explained, “you have racism in Colombia also, these people are not really recognized, they live a little on the side.” The hope is that with this year’s theme, and with the tribute to Nuevo Miramar, “the afro population will be much more involved in the Fiesta.”

So what does all this amount to? The stages, the promotional record, the theme, the emphasis on culture against violence? “Last year we had more than 80,000 people coming to see the Fiesta. It’s really motivating.”

80,000 people out and about until 3am, and this in a city where residents were once too scared to even venture downtown. It is really motivating. And it’s not just happening in Colombia. From Medellín’s art vs. violence experiment to country-wide projects like Venezuela’s El Sistema and localized projects here in the United States, such as Providence’s Community Music Works, there’s something about music that makes change.

Step aside, Pablito.

Or, St(ock)h(o)lm.

Right off the bat, it’s clear that the Fête de la Musique in the Swedish capital is a hip affair.  Make Music STHLM falls somewhere between that classic Scandinavian allure – chic, effortless, avant-garde – and the innate flair and flourish of French Cultural Attaché to Stockholm Alice Lebredonchel, and there’s something about this duality that makes the Fête in Stockholm work. This theme of two – everything in our talk seemed to come in pairs – has taken an uncanny hold of the STHLM festival story, beginning with the fact that 2011 marks festival … two.

I caught up with Alice, who is there on a two-year contract, on Skype. She’s the spark behind Make Music STHLM, and her perspective – as both a newcomer to Sweden, and as a French employee working on what is becoming a Swedish thing – makes for an interesting take on the Fête, especially when I learned that this year, Make Music STHLM will be held not on June 21^st, but two weeks earlier, on June 6^th.

Why June 6^th? Apparently, it wasn’t a random choice. First, June 21^st is dangerously close to the Swedish holiday of midsommer, celebrated annually on the third Friday in the month. The day is sacred in Sweden, and marks the beginning of summer holidays. By the 21^st, most of Stockholm has left for the country (As Alice put it, “the streets are empty, really creepy atmosphere, actually.”)  Second, June 6^th – National Day – has been newly anointed a ‘Red Day,’ or public holiday, and the nation has the day off, but according to Alice, people “don’t have anything special to do. There is no tradition…yet!” Thus, when Alice met with the city of Stockholm, they all agreed “that it would be a great opportunity to put [the festival] on [June 6] and include it – and thus have their support on organization – in the cultural festivities they have this day.”

Interesting: a French concept celebrated on Sweden’s national day. When I asked Alice my favorite question about the role of place in the festival, and about how Make Music STHLM manages to stay true to the idea of the Fête while working within a Swedish context, she said: “there are two answers to that. Of course it’s promoting Swedish music. But what we are doing as well is we’re going to have a closing party at the end with French artists. In most of the countries [where the Fête is celebrated], it has been the French institutes and embassies who started the conversation with local organizations. They’re always there at the beginning of the project. In the first years, even though it’s about local music, it’s really about promoting a concept that comes from France.” Still, Alice continued, there’s a second part to the founders’ story: “at some point the project will be so successful it will grow by itself and be taken over by another [local] institution.”

“You really have to take into account the city you are living in” said Alice, echoing what I’ve been hearing again and again. “It’s more about the concept than the date. We’ll see how it goes this year, but I think the nice opportunity about putting it on the national day is making it something that happens every year.”

Make Music STHLM started in 2010, when a group of teachers at a French high school in the capital approached the French Embassy about hosting a small version of the Fête in their school. Alice, new to Stockholm and her position, jumped at the opportunity to take the festival city-wide. Despite the short turn-around and having to play catch-up on Swedish traditions, the first festival was a success, with some 40 bands playing in a dozen locations around town.

Three Green Trees play at Normalmstorg (photo by Rachel Daucé)

This year, things are looking even more promising. “I should point out first that we improved so much [this year]” said Alice. “Last year we didn’t really infiltrate the good networks. This year, we have a lot a lot of rock bands – but it’s always like this – orchestras, brass bands, choirs, some jazz bands. Every kind of music. And DJs. We received so many DJ applications, it’s crazy, I don’t know why.”

“I think its going to be between 40 and 45 places, which is four times what we did last year, so it’s really great. We have so many different kinds of places – museums, bars, cafés, shops, hospitals, an old people’s home, churches. And the city will build stages in the center of the city, which is great exposure as well. It’s the first time we do it this way with partner spaces. it will be interesting to see what they think of it.”

Apart from lining up with a national holiday, what is it about Sweden, and Stockholm, that makes the festival work? Alice had, again, two answers. First, that music is integral to Swedish life, as evidenced not only by the number of active musicians in Stockholm, but also by the support they have (there must be a reason, after all, why my flutist friend left New York for Malmö.) “There is a huge culture of education outside of school in Sweden. You can learn anything as an adult here, you name it. The biggest thing they have is music classes. And they have this counseling program – it’s crazy, I’ve never seen something like it. They have bands registered, and [each band] gets a personal counselor for free, who tells them this week you should do this, and next week you can do that. So we reached out to them, because they have so many people registered.”

Second, that the city has a tradition of outdoor summer festivals, which makes Make Music STHLM an easy fit. “The thing is in Sweden it’s so hard in the winter that when the summer comes, as soon as the sun is out – and you know we only have like 3 or 4 hours of darkness in the summer – people are in the parks all the time. I’ve never seen this anywhere else. They’re really trying to spend the most time they can outside in the nice season, which is only three months.  It’s really a special time in June. There are so many festivals. I end the summer so exhausted!”

I once spent a midsummer week on a boat in the Stockholm harbor, fascinated by the sky. When Alice says it’s unlike anywhere else, she’s right. There truly is something special about Scandinavia in the summertime and its the endless, energizing sun. So, does the Fête go all night? Unfortunately, no. “This year we will start at noon, and we think we’ll stop outdoor music at 10 or 11, and then an after party until 1. It’s a Monday so we can’t finish too late.”

Alice is an old hand at the Fête. Like most French, she’s seen her share of the festival, and can speak to its uniqueness. Her first experience with it was in her hometown of Caen, in Normandy. “I was maybe 15 or 16 when my parents let me go for the first time by myself”, she laughed. “The main difference in France is that nobody is behind it. You know it’s so much work for  New York and for myself in Stockholm but in France people might decide that afternoon, ‘ok let’s play tonight and let’s take our things and just play on the streets.’ They don’t ask for authorizations and because everyone knows it’s on this day the police don’t care. It’s really different. It’s less organized in a way, so you don’t know what you’re going to see or what you can expect. You get a lot of nice surprises in France.” That sense of spontaneity is something that I envy from my post here in NYC, but as Alice pointed out, “the nice thing about how it is done abroad is that there’s a program so if you want to listen to something particular you can.” (She’s even seen MMNY, in 2008, when she was in NYC interning at MOCADA).

But back to the hipness.  Alice is bringing the festival into the 21^st century with some fabulous technological accessories. To be honest, I’m surprised other festivals haven’t followed suite.  First up, as expected, is an iPhone app. “It’s not that fancy”, Alice insisted, “it’s a link to our website, Facebook and Twitter, and a Google map with all the places and the program, and a questionnaire. Oh and a link to our YouTube channel.  It’s going to be a really cool way for people to walk around and see the festival.” And for those with non-Apple smart phones, Alice has something for them, too: “we have posters at the venues and throughout the city, and there will be a QR code on the poster which will link to the Google map with all the places and times.”

Brent plays at Kungstragarden (photo by Rachel Daucé)

Other than new technologies, I asked Alice what her favorite moments had been thus far, and what she was looking forward to. Her favorite moment from the first festival, she said, “was when the music started. At the beginning we had this huge rain for forty minutes and then it stopped and the sky was blue. When the music started, it was very emotionally strong because it’s so much work.” For this year, she’s looking forward to a Symphony for a Harbor, by “this English guy named Robin. You know we have two harbors in Stockholm, and we have boats that do cruises in the archipelago. [Robin] managed to convince these boats to let him be an orchestra manager and to use their horns on the boats, and he’s going to do a concert with the horns of the boats. It’s an amazing project.” Sounds pretty incredible (and amusing, with even Stockholm’s geography falling into our “two” theme).

Maybe it’s because we’re close in age (an assumption based on our kindred choices for casual wear and outdoor locations for our Skype interview), but halfway through our conversation I started making a mental note of the friends I have within the city’s vicinity, to urge them to participate in STHLM 2011. Alice is only in Stockholm through the end of this year. She’s not sure where she’s going next, but before she leaves she’ll ensure that Make Music STHLM continues. And from the hour we spent together, I’m sure it will be fabulous. Emails encouraging said Stockholm-area friends were sent as soon as we hung up. By then I shouldn’t have been surprised, but honestly, it turns out there are only two of them.

(Another installment in a series on Fête de la Musique worldwide)

It’s been hard not to harp on the cultural policy questions that are troubling the arts these days, especially when chatting with festival organizers in cities less concerned with permits and more concerned with playing than US cities can allow themselves to be. It isn’t news that the climate for the arts on this side of the pond is, well, bleak. And complicated. There’s former National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Bill Ivey calling for a more thorough and, importantly, present arts policy (an East Wing vs.West Wing thing, in his own words here) as current NEA Chairman Rocco Landsman stirs heated debates on the idea of supply and demand (read some of the fallout here and here). The NEA found itself on the chopping block earlier this year (cut, though not entirely, thankfully), as did state arts councils, some of which were eliminated entirely. Even Alec Baldwin can’t seem to make much headway on the Hill (for some comic relief, here he is on Letterman with what he really thinks about the whole Hill experience …) The list of available parks for this year’s Make Music New York is impressive, but you know it comes at a price.

It’s kind of a mess.

Meanwhile in Paris, unlike NYC, there’s no need for an official permit to play music on June 21. “Declaring” one’s intention to the French Ministry of Culture is sufficient and, if you forget or change your mind or are last-minute-inspired, no problem. Play anyways.  No one shuts you down. No one complains that the arts are getting in the way. And this has been going on for thirty years now. Thirty years.

Fête de la Musique celebrates its thirtieth festival in France this June 21, which is as much a cause for celebration there as it is cause for reflection here. Reagan was sworn in as President of the United States in 1981, the same year the idea of La Fête de la Musique was born (and it’s worth remembering how the arts fared under Reagan.)

What is it that made the Paris of 1981 such a different place from the New York of 1981? And how does that translate to the Fête, both in Paris and abroad? Is it a … cultural thing? Do we chalk it up to the Ministry of Culture? Could the Fête have come to be in a different context, a different country? Or, is it a uniquely French expression? And if it’s uniquely French, how is it that this June 21, 2011, the festival will be celebrated in more than 300 cities and 60 countries world-wide? (Joining the ranks this year: Chicago, Lisbon, Shanghai and Montreal.)

The why France is a big question. Too big for one conversation. So despite the policy questions knocking around in my head, let’s focus on the celebration, for now. How did the Fête come to be, anyways? (Mythical beginnings are always fun). I caught up with Sylvie Canal and David Millier, half of the staff charged with General Coordination of the Fête both in France and Internationally (yes, four people do all that work …), and asked them this very question (along with the why France question, though I wasn’t expecting an answer for that one).

Sylvie started with the beginning, and the first festival, in 1982: “There was a survey on amateur musicians in France, and in this survey the Ministry happened to learn that there were more than 4 million people who played music …” she began. “At the time, there was the new government that had arrived in France in 1981, and there was a new cultural policy, so the Fête was launched to emphasize this policy and to develop it. The idea was born inside the Ministry – it was the consular Jack Lang who had this idea to make a call to every amateur musician in France and tell them to gather in the streets with their instruments and have the biggest concert ever organized in the world. We had the help of the national radio; RadioFrance had a promotion spot where they told people to come into the streets at 8:30pm [on June 21] and to play until 9pm. In fact millions of people were in the street and they played not for half an hour but all night! It was a huge success.”

“For the second year, in 1983,” Sylvie continued, “it was more organized by the Ministry. In Paris especially there were so many musicians who wanted to take part in the event that the Ministry had to coordinate all these people. They had to organize the public space. I remember very well the second one. I was on the street listening. It was great; it was the biggest event I had ever seen!”

(David wasn’t around for the early festivals, but he remembers being a teenager, in the late 80s, and participating in the Fête for the first time: “it was a really good memory, there was this feeling of something special” he said.)

The ‘new government’ in 1981 was that of François Mitterrand, and he and Jack Lang had much to do with how the Fête took hold in the public imagination. As Sylvie put it, “when [the Fête] was first created, it was after many years of a right-wing government. When the left-wing and François Mitterrand came to the government there was like a feeling of freedom, that’s why I think it was so successful the first time. After that, the political reasons have disappeared and now the Fête is just a very popular event, a way of sharing music and sharing a very free day.”

Much can change in thirty years, especially in the political arena. And yet, despite subsequent presidents and policies, the Fête de la Musique has “become like a national day … The policy has changed but all the succeeding ministries have wanted to maintain La Fête because it is such a popular event and also a very good image for France outside France; none of them wanted to see the Fête disappear. The ministry is still supporting the Fête but it is a small budget for them. Not a big budget but a very, very big event.”

People and cultures change over time, too. Does the Fête still have that sense of freedom, of spontaneity, that it had in 1981?

“There are no barriers to La Fête in France. Every year we have 400 or 500 concerts in Paris, but there are all the others that we don’t know about it. People go out spontaneously and there are many concerts we don’t know about.” That impetus to take the streets, and to linger there, is still a defining characteristic of the festival. It’s Sylvie’s favorite part, to this day: “For me, my favorite moment is when it is very late in Paris and normally all the concerts should stop at 12:30 [am] and if we are hanging out in the street later on we can see many small concerts on the terraces of restaurants, and more. I like this moment particularly.”

Can you imagine millions of people playing all night in New York? NYC gets close, to be sure – Sylvie herself acknowledges that Make Music New York is looking more and more like Paris. But as veteran organizer Evan Hammer pointed out in a previous interview, and I can attest, the work that goes into making it “look” like Paris is significant. So how does the Fête stay Fête-like when celebrated outside France? And should it, even? And does France take the lead, here, as a bit of successful cultural diplomacy (which brings up more big questions, for another day)?

A good part of Sylvie and David’s job includes such international coordination. “At the beginning” explained Sylvie, “we worked a lot with the French cultural network – the French institutes, French embassies, Alliance Française. They were the port-parole, the promoters of the event. The Ministry sent a letter to all the Ministries of Culture all over the world to invite them to participate. Jack Lang also wrote to the mayors of big cities and so on. Now we don’t have to do this job because the cities are coming to us to ask how to take part. They come to Paris to see how it is going on and to talk to us, and then they organize it in their city.”

“We can give examples, or some basic advice” added David, “and we get the spirit of the Fête across, but then you have to let it go to the specificity of the city, of the national culture and work with existing networks.”

“The spirit is the same” Sylvie emphasized, “but it really is different everywhere because cities are so different.”

You know something’s big when it gets put on currency. In the US, looking at our currency would show a foreigner that we care about our history – presidents, states, monuments.

This year, the French 2€ coin will have … yes, La Fête. Incroyable!

(I say we aim for Make Music New York on metrocards, which are as good as currency here, to be sure.)

So, a tip of the hat to Mitterrand and Lang, and another to Sylvie and David and their Parisian staff; one to the French Consular Generals and their port-paroles, and another to Aaron Friedman and the folks here in New York. Whatever the reasons, and despite some considerable odds, 2011 is cause for celebration. Thirty years in France, five years in New York, and many more Fêtes to faire in the future.

*

(an aside)

fait: third person singular, present tense of the verb faire, meaning ‘to make’

— Faites de la musique: make music

fête: noun, meaning ‘festival’

— Fête de la musique:  music festival.

One pronunciation, two meanings. A play on words that makes it possible to export to non-French speaking lands. Clever.

(First in a series that will feature interviews with organizers of the Fête de la Musique – world music day in its original French incarnation – around the globe)

The weather seems to be an increasingly repetitive theme these days. When I met Deborah Sobol, Artistic and Executive Director of Rush Hour Concerts at St. James Cathedral, and Julie Hutchison, her Managing Director, for a virtual coffee on Skype last week, I found them not in Chicago, where they’re planning the first ever Make Music Chicago, but in sunny California. Apparently, Deborah relocates to California every March for a month-long artist retreat. The reason? It’s cold in Chicago in March. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of the bright California sun streaming through my computer screen.

It’s fitting that my first city profile be one of a city with a first of its own. Make Music Chicago will début this June 21, 2011, and from our conversation last week, it’s shaping up to be an amazing event.

We can’t understand the enthusiasm behind Make Music Chicago without first knowing something about (as Deborah put it) its “seasoned and spicy team”. Deborah is deeply interested in the role of great art in every day lives, and in making this art accessible; it’s been a cornerstone of her career since the beginning. The way she sees it, there are two plumb lines that have taken her through, from beginning her career as a concert pianist in the ’70s to founding Rush Hour Concerts in 2000. First: that great art always has a community involved. As she explained, “I can’t play a Beethoven sonata by myself and have the same experience as I would playing it for someone else. And as soon as you have someone else listening, it moves very quickly into that really magical triangle of performer, composer, and listener.” Second: that art has the power to transform people’s lives. “It doesn’t take a long time”, she noted. “It can happen in twenty minutes and you can suddenly be taken up to the 35,000 foot level, and be reminded of your humanity by being in a community of engaged listeners, and leave and go back to work the next day a better person.”

The tag line for Rush Hour – “great music for busy lives” ­– speaks to these two principles on many levels, and it speaks to the ideas behind the Fête de la Musique (which you can read more about here) as well.

The Rush Hour ‘Founder’s story’ goes something like this: “with Rush Hour, it was actually very much on my mind about five years before we actually founded it because I saw a very distinct change in our cultural trends … it was the first time a generation of women had gone on and lived out that liberated workforce, and were feeling the strain of what that does to our social and cultural lives. The cultural life we grew up with in the ’60s was no longer there because we were all working. To me that was a huge shift. So, I started Rush Hour as a response to those demands on our contemporary lifestyles. It was conceived out of the box, conceived with the idea that everyone, no matter what their station in life, should have easy access to great music.” Today, Rush Hour attracts more than 500 individuals, a third of which are “young people”, to their free weekly summer series.  “When Make Music Chicago came along, it seemed like a natural extension of the Rush Hour mission,” Deborah explained, and not only because June 21 falls on a Tuesday this year, which happens to be the weekly Rush Hour evening.

Deborah was introduced to the Fête by Chicago’s French Consul, General Graham Paul.  When Julie pulled up some info on Make Music New York, and the duo saw what it had been and could be elsewhere, well, they “were off to the races. Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, and all summer long there are festivals. So [the Fête] was a natural fit” noted Julie. The city, Deborah says, has been on board since the beginning. “The City is used to things like this happening in the summer, and they’re offering us some of their more public spaces where they’re used to people doing things. It all has to go through permits, of course, but they’re very enthusiastic about it.”

In their first year, they’re starting modestly. Deborah laughed: “Chicago is a huge city, and has just as huge a number of neighborhoods. So for us to start now and try to get every neighborhood involved would be total suicide. This is just partial suicide.” When I confessed to Deborah and Julie that my understanding of Chicago is that of a classical music city – the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the best in the nation after all, the city has given rise to the likes of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Rush Hour itself is largely classical-themed – Deborah laughed, again. “The first two people who signed up were rock bands. And the folk genre is very popular in Chicago… so that will be very well represented. And we have a lot of ethnic neighborhoods as well, so we’re hoping we’ll have segments of everything.”

The Grand Finale will be at St. James Cathedral. “We’re planning a Grand Symphony in C. A few minutes before sunset, we’ll have everyone who’s participated during the day gather in the cathedral and sing or play something – anything – so long as it’s in C Major. So there will be kazoo players, and string quartets, and a lot of people humming and singing in C. We’ll probably have the organ put the pedal point down. And we’ll have someone, hopefully a person of note (no pun intended) conduct us for five minutes or so, because you know a Symphony in C…a little will go a long way at that point in the day. So that will be our Grand Finale to send the Fête de la Musique further west on its day-long journey.” (At this I couldn’t help but think with nostalgia about NYC’s performance of Terry Riley’s In C in our own first year.)

One of my favorite aspects of Make Music New York is how it encourages all sorts of people to come out and play, which, actually, plays directly into Deborah’s mission of music for all. “A lot of people are inhibited from [playing in public] because they think they have to be perfect. It’s another phenomenon of our culture that people are beginning to think that you just press an iPod button and that’s what it means to make music. But when you begin to do something yourself you realize that it’s so much more gratifying, and it becomes a much bigger part of your life, which is another reason I’m very excited about Make Music Chicago.”

But perhaps the most fun part of the Fête de la Musique for me is the surprise and pleasure of coming across friends and colleagues in a different context. Already Deborah has some interesting stories of cross-over and unexpected musical twists. “Kuang-Hao Huang, a wonderful pianist in Chicago, he is so excited that he asked if he could participate in other ways – he’s playing on the Rush Hour concert that night. Turns out he used to be in a marching band in high school and wants to pull out his trombone again and get some marching band together on Daley Plaza to play the Stars and Stripes or something.”

If you find yourself in Chicago on June 21, be sure to stop in with an instrument tuned to C for the Grand Finale. And look out for Deborah “hiding out in the alto section of an amateur madrigal group.” Looking forward to seeing how Make Music Chicago unfolds in year one.

UPDATED: for clarity

(Another installment in a series on Fête de la Musique worldwide)

I’ve never been to Australia, so I was excited to chat with the folks in Brisbane about their city, their music, and Fête de la Musique Brisbane. That is, until I realized that though it’s technically spring in NYC and autumn in Brisbane, they were sitting in a sunny 70°F, quite literally double that of NYC (that it’s warmed up slightly since we talked doesn’t make it much better). I considered ditching my knee-length down coat for a plane ticket, but instead I caught up via email (the time difference makes live chatting tricky) with Luke Harriman, Team Leader of Cultural Programs for the Brisbane City Council, and Cassie Grace, Marketing and Communications Officer for the Council, two of the people behind the Fête de la Musique Brisbane. And it is “Fête de la Musique,” even in English speaking Brisbane – the French was a deliberate choice. “Brisbane has plenty of music festivals so we thought some French might stand out some more,” wrote Luke.

Fête de la Musique Brisbane was launched in 2008, with some 640 musicians performing in 35 locations around the city. In less than four years, the festival has almost doubled. Despite reservations about June 21, 2010 landing on a Monday, last year’s festival featured 922 musicians and 12 schools performing in 60 locations across town. Such growth comes as no surprise for a city with as strong a musical scene as Brisbane, crowned one of Billboard Magazine’s five international music hot spots “spawning exciting new sounds” in 2007.

Although the Brisbane City Council was unfamiliar with Fête de la Musique when L’Alliance Française de Brisbane broached the subject in 2008, the Council was “quickly convinced of its ability to bring music lovers together to celebrate music everywhere. It resonated strongly with [the] Council’s vision to have a vibrant and creative city as well as a community of connected and engaged people” wrote Luke. The festival has been produced by the Council ever since.  It’s a good deal. As Luke pointed out, “we know that in many other countries the event is organized by independent groups which has many advantages; however there are also many advantages to the event being run by the Council. For example, it’s a lot easier to use a park when you’re in charge of the park.” Having dealt with the Make Music New York permitting process…I can only say, so true.

As with all things, there are growing pains. Four years into the festival, Luke and Cassie admit that the biggest challenge, still,  is getting the process right. Like Make Music New York, this year Fête Brisbane is working with GigMaven to organize online registrations. The Brisbane folks are happy with it, so far:  “In previous years, once registrations closed the organizing team had to lock themselves in a room for two weeks so they could listen to everyone’s music, match them with suitable venues, prepare schedules, propose programs and then troubleshoot our way to 21^st June. This new registration system will go a long way removing the onerous process of programming the entire event” explained Luke.

I asked Luke and Cassie why they thought people participated in Fête Brisbane. They had a lot to say:

“Fête de la Musique has a wonderful community spirit to it that celebrates people coming together and sharing music. There are no rules about how ‘good’ you have to be or the type of music you like to play. Not everyone who wants to play music wants to be a professional recording artist so this provides a very important platform for everyone to come together on an equal footing and play music. Earlier this year, Brisbane suffered one its most devastating natural disasters on record with massive flooding that lead to the destruction of lots of personal and public property. The effects of the flood will surely be felt for years to come both financially and emotionally. Events like Fête de la Musique play a huge role in bringing people together, showing the resilience of Brisbane people and celebrating the great parts of our city.”

They shared some of the feedback they’ve received from participating musicians:

“I love the concept behind Fête de la Musique. It’s romantic to think that one day a year the world’s cities are filled with the sound of music. Like one giant listening party.”

“When I heard about the event two years ago, I walked around the city for the entire day listening to bands and solo musicians perform. It was fantastic! I thought, ‘I don’t need to listen to my iPod, there’s music all over the place.’ I could just walk from Queen Street to South Bank and into West End, and the whole walk was like traveling through a tapestry of different genres and influences. ”

“I would love to see the city so crammed full of music this year that even bitter businessmen and commuters having a bad day won’t be able to escape a girl playing classical violin outside the station or a ska band making noise in the middle of the walkway”

And Luke had some memorable moments of his own to share:

“There have been many wonderful moments over the last four years. I personally recall an older lady who phoned in to inquire whether she could perform. She nervously explained that she had a small backing track and loved singing but wasn’t sure she was good enough to be part of the program. Needless to say, she was quickly reassured Fête de la Musique was the event for her. If she wanted to sing on that day we were going make sure it was going to happen. And it did.

“At our local children’s hospital, they have a media room that broadcasts to all the television sets in the various wards. We sent an amazing music group in and they spread music through the whole hospital and the kids loved it. The venue has signed up again and again, and looks forward to it every year.

“Another favorite moment of mine was watching 3 teenage boys in one of our city malls. Their voices were all cracking, they could hardly hit a note between them and they still hadn’t discovered rhythm properly, but the look on their faces at being allowed to perform on the mall stage was brilliant. I hope they’re still practicing, playing and getting ready to take the music world by storm.”

It was lovely to catch up with Luke and Cassie and learn a little about how the festival goes down, down under. And it turns out the weather is lovely in Brisbane year round, so Fête de la Musique Brisbane doesn’t suffer much from being a winter celebration. Cassie was quick to point out that “on a winter’s day we can expect clear skies and sunshine, 55°F degrees in the evening – perfect for outdoor concerts.” That plane ticket is looking better and better…