Make Music Day: National Vocal Projects

New Initiatives For This Year’s Celebration Are Designed To Lift Every Voice

May 13, 2025 – Make Music Day may be known for the thousands of singer/songwriters, bands, choirs, and large instrumental ensembles that perform around the world on the first day of summer. But you don’t have to have a band – or even an instrument – to be part of the music-making! The upcoming celebration on Saturday, June 21, 2025 includes two new offerings that are designed to attract eager vocalists of all skill levels to join in and exemplify the concept of harmony–between people, nations, and ideologies.

Coordinated by Hugh’s Room Live, an independent music venue in Toronto Canada, Taking Flight is an innovative choral experience connecting groups in Canada, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Türkiye and the US at the exact same time worldwide.
Choral directors in each location will select a popular song for the occasion, in their local language, on the theme of “taking flight.” Members of the public will gather to learn the selection in multi-part harmony. After rehearsal, a global streaming broadcast will begin, where each choir will perform their song live, taking turns so that every participating country can watch every other country’s live performance on a large screen. The event will close with a collective rendition of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” sung by every group in harmony, around the world.
“Taking Flight is a great example of how Make Music Day brings people together, at a time when the world needs it most,” said Jim Thomas, President of Hugh’s Room Live. “Taking
inspiration from birds, whose songs transcend national boundaries, this project unites hundreds of ordinary people from three continents to make music together and share a real, human connection.”
In the United States, as part of Make Music Fairfield, the Connecticut Audubon Society will host Taking Flight at the country’s oldest private songbird sanctuary, with the assembled crowd learning an arrangement of Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird.” Make Music Madison, the country’s largest June 21 celebration, will join Taking Flight from the newly-built center for Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. In Canada, the audience at Hugh’s Room Live will perform Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire.” The full schedule of countries, venues, and songs – including a link for those watching at home – will be posted on June 1 at makemusicday.org.
Also new this year, supported by leadership from the Cheswatyr Foundation, is a national project for Circle Singing. A practice popularized by renowned Grammy Award-winning vocalist Bobby McFerrin, circle singing is an improvised vocal experience without sheet music or advance preparation. Participants create music in the moment, layering sounds and rhythms extemporaneously, and delighting in the beauty of their collective expression. (For another example of circle singing in practice, click here.)

In New York, NY, the Gaia Music Collective and Make Music New York will present the first 24- hour “Sing For The Earth” for Make Music Day. Inspired by the tradition of Bobby McFerrin’s Unbroken Circle, singers will gather in a newly-opened creative space, All In One @ The Church (494 E 23rd St in Flatbush, Brooklyn), for 24 hours of nonstop circle singing in honor of our planet. From noon on Saturday June 21 until noon on Sunday June 22, all are welcome to come and lend their voices for a few minutes, a few hours, or the full day. Song leaders and event facilitators will include Guillermo Rozenthuler from Argentina; Sofia Ribeiro and Tiago Grade (Rizumik) from Portugal; Zahara from India; Zuza Gonçalves from Brazil; and Kenter Davies, Matt Goldstein, Simi Yuyu, Sofia Campoamor and Tracy Robertson from the U.S.

Other circle singing events will be ringing out around the country for Make Music Day. In Boston MA, Peter McLoughlin will gather participants under the resonant Quincy Market Rotunda (4 South Market St) to sing from 5:30 to 7:30pm. In Indianapolis IN, Davin Youngs will lead circle songs under the glass dome of the Artsgarden (110 W Washington St) from 11am to 1pm, while Bram Kaprow leads an event at Circa Properties (124 W. Wilshire Unit B) in Fullerton CA. Full details for these events and more will be posted on June 1 at makemusicday.org.