Music Lovers Rejoice: Make Music Winter Returns Dec. 21

Illustration by Adam McCauley, courtesy of Make Music NY

 Make Music Winter returns on Monday December 21. Musicians, singers, and winter revelers are invited to join the party and make music on the longest night of the year. Most events require no musical training, but some open rehearsals start now.

A dozen musical parades are planned, including Bach, Bells, Flatfooters, Kalimbas, Parranderos (in Melrose and Williamsburg), Percussion, Singers, and Smartphones. For example, in Brooklyn:

- Bell by Bell: Starting at the DUMBO Arch, artist Tom Peyton will distribute seventy color-coded bells to the crowd, one color per note. At the front of the parade, a team of conductors waves corresponding colored flags to lead the group in slowly moving music, written by a variety of composers. When the conductors raise their red and green flags, everyone with red and green bells start ringing, and so on for each color.

- RPM / BLINK / Wheels: The ever-popular bicycle bell parade through Prospect Park, which started with BLINK in 2013 and continued with Wheels in 2014, turns into a trilogy with RPM by P. Spadine of Ashcan Orchestra.

- Flat Foot Flatbush: Dancers, fiddlers, and pickers will parade down Flatbush Ave playing old-time tunes while flat footing, a form of percussive dancing from Appalachia. Led by dancer Megan Downes and the City Stompers, the parade steps off at 5:00 pm in front of the Barclays Center, with stops along the way to play, dance, and sing. Workshop to make your own tap shoes if you don't have any.

- La Trullita Navideña, a cultural experience of the Caribbean tradition of parranda. Join in the singing, drumming and celebration throughout Los Sures, the Southside of Williamsburg. Leading up to Make Music Winter, join BombaYo for open rehearsals in November and December, held at El Puente and Williamsburg Library Spaceworks.

More on Make Music Winter here.

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