On Tuesday, MATA held a workshop for Make Music Winter projects, some of which will come to life on NYC streets this December 21st.

Check out all of the proposals here.

Lainie Fefferman, along with Jascha Narveson and Cameron Britt, have an awesome idea entitled The Gaits in which contact mikes affixed to participants shoes would trigger various sounds and patterns. James Holt wants to position cello players (or potentially any ensemble) at every station along the F train, all playing the Prelude from Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G major, creating a connection between these spaces through coordinated performances. Ravi Kittappa’s piece centers around the Shruti Box (which I had never seen before) and how the drone created by this instrument accompanies the general drone of the city around us. I had the chance to present my piece Bell by Bell as well. Here’s a sample of how it might sound.

Phil Kline, whose Unsilent Night was the inspiration for MMW, was on hand to offer reactions and advice to all presenters. After leading Unsilent Night for the last 19 years, he has invaluable knowledge about what it takes to create a successful public sound event. His questions and comments following each presentation shed important light on a number of different issues ranging from how the public would interact with and interpret the pieces, to ideal location, to the complexity of coordinating logistics. The conversation with Phil also focused on the nature of public art and the appropriate role for artists in creating work in public space. The common conception of public art is of a static piece that simply sits in space and does not encourage individuals to interact with it, or to think about the environment around them in a different way. It was really exciting to be sitting in a room with a group of composers that were committed to taking action in urban space that would create public art that is supposed to be participatory, engaging, and rewarding.

Also in attendance were MMNY’s Aaron Friedman as well as MATA’s Executive Director David T. Little, Artistic Director Yotam Haber, and President of the Board of Directors Jim Rosenfield.

We are far from being the only festival organizer in New York City – we’re closer to being the youngest – and one of our peers and colleagues hits the stage, and the club, this week. It’s time for the latest MATA Festival, a concentrated showcase of the newest in new classical music, from America and the rest of the world.

The fun all starts, in the funnest way, with a party tonight, May 9! If you buy a pass, you gain entry to the party, otherwise it’s a $50 charge (it’s part fundraiser). The music really starts tomorrow, May 10, 2PM, at the Cornelia Street Cafe, where we come in, with the MATA composition workshop, with our friend Phil Kline, for Make Music Winter (please RSVP to info@matafestival.org, although I’m sure no one will be turned away). The concerts themselves start at 7:30PM Tuesday and all shows are at Le Poisson Rouge, running through Thursday. And for you starving composers, check out Lisa Bielawa’s Composer Survival School at Cornelia Street, Thursday at 2PM ($7). I wish this had been around twenty-five years ago . . .

Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night has been a holiday tradition in New York City for the last nineteen years.  About a week before Christmas, people gather at Washington Square Park, armed with boomboxes. Each box has one of the four tracks to Kline’s lovely electronic piece. At the composer’s call of “Play,” the music starts, and everyone sets off on a casual parade to Tompkins Square Park. Last year, 1,200 people took part, carrying boomboxes or just listening, and the parade itself has spread, as of 2010, to eighteen cities across the country and another six around the world.

This year, inspired by Unsilent Night, we’re creating Make Music Winter, a new event with thirty simultaneous, participatory musical parades throughout New York City on December 21, the winter solstice. Some parades will feature boomboxes, others percussionists, singers, kazoos, cellphones – essentially any instrument that can be played while walking along frigid streets.  Each parade will feature its own distinctive music, composed or curated by different artists, and will be produced by its own presenting partner, all overseen by Make Music New York. MATA is helping out by leading a workshop for potential Make Music Winter composers, to be held on May 10 at the Cornelia Street Cafe (time to be determined). MATA has a deadline of April 1 for the proposals to this workshop, and ten chosen participants will be notified by April 10.

(Please note that not every Make Music Winter parade will come out of this workshop. If you’re interested in getting involved in another way, or don’t fit the MATA guidelines, email us at aaron@makemusicny.org.)