Make Music New York (6/21/26)

A quick note about MMNY. It occurs twice a year on each solstice. Back to your regularly scheduled blogpost. 

I celebrated the solstice with Make Music New York. This year, I only scheduled three events, as I found their website a little difficult to navigate. My first stop was at the Garden Center—Park Avenue at 111th Street. It was listed as 10am through later in the day. My plan was to stay until 10:45 before traveling to my second stop. It turns out that the DJ-cum-performer began setting up at 10am, so I never heard anyone making music. I saw some nice plants, though, and a few chickens. Otherwise, it was a bust.  

I knew that my second stop would be fun, and I was right. Sousapalooza! This was easily my third attendance at this event and possibly my fourth. Here’s the deal. The band members sign up, get sent the music that will be played, study it on their own, and then show up on June 21 for the performance. No rehearsal—just a little warm-up, talking/reading about the layout of the program, and then perform. The conductor is the same person I’ve seen in the past, and he knows how to handle this. This year, the John Philip Sousa marches were played in alphabetical order—El Capitan, Fairest of the Fair, Hands Across the Sea, High School Cadets, In Memoriam, The Liberty Bell, Manhattan Beach, one I missed the name of, Semper Fidelis, The Thunderer, The Washington Post March, and (out of alpha order) Stars & Stripes, to end the performance. I had a blast listening. A guy sitting behind me asked about what was going on, as he had just stumbled across it. It turns out that he was just visiting, so I explained MMNY (twice yearly free concerts at each solstice). He had never heard of it. As it also turned out, he told me that he has two daughters who play in their school band, and he was going to tell them about it later. My good deed was done for the day. A note about In Memoriam—it was written by Sousa for President Garfield’s funeral. It was played there. It was also played at Sousa’s funeral.  

My final stop of the day was an event called Composer’s Voice. This was music (mostly very short compositions) written by living composers, some of whom were at the event. The first group was six guitar pieces ranging from one with touches of jazz, one slow but not necessarily somber, one quite modern, one that also used the body of the guitar as percussion—well, you get my drift. Solo guitar is not my favorite, but it’s good to stretch my ears sometimes. 

There was also a set of four solo guitar pieces that were written specifically for the fellow who played them. Titled Ikenobō, they represented the oldest and largest school of ikebana, the Japanese practice of giving plants and flowers invigorated new life. The name is derived from the word combination of a pond (ike) and the small hut built near the pond for subsequent priests to live in (bo). 

The rest of the hour included one-minute string quartets and a piece that concluded the performance written for string quartet, guitar, and alto saxophone. Its title was Frigid Piggy. I’m not making this up, you know! OK, this eclectic, modern compositional style was not my bag, but some of the writing was done very well. I doubt I’ll hear any of this music again, but as I said earlier, I did stretch my ears.  

I probably shouldn’t put this in writing, in case I don’t actually do it. I’m thinking of attending Sousapalooza on June 21, 2027 in a city that is not NYC. 

ConcertMeister