Make Music New York 2014 Presents Concerts Across All Genres; Kicks Off the First Day of Summer Today

There are approximately 1,350 diverse concerts in this year's Make Music New York, which takes place (as always) on the first day of summer, today, June 21, from dawn 'til dusk. Below are a few highlights, listed chronologically.

View complete listings at the Make Music New York website, makemusicny.org. As always with MMNY, all concerts are free.

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11 am ensemble mise-en

The Cell, 338 W. 23rd St

ensemble mise-en is an innovative and versatile New York-based contemporary music collective led by composer Moon Young Ha. For Make Music New York, the ensemble hosts a series of workshops: "Composition, New Sounds, and Orchestral Instruments" with members of ensemble mise-en, "Improvisation" with Fay Victor, and "New Music and Korean Traditional Instruments" with Gamin.

11 am - 11:45 am And Death Shall Have No Dominion
Converging on Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City

"And Death Shall Have No Dominion" is a participatory singing event for a synchronized headphone choir in honor of Dylan Thomas's famous poem, conceived of and composed by composer Pete M. Wyer. Using an app that contains the accompaniment and synchronizes their mobile devices, participants set-off along 45-minute walking routes through lower Manhattan, singing the words of the renowned poet across the landscape of his final days. The performers begin their walk individually, singing just one part. Little by little, as routes converge, the song is revealed in its fullness until eventually, everyone assembles together in Rockefeller Park for a grand choral finale accompanied by the Asphalt Orchestra.

11:45 am - 7 pm Silent Walk
Broadway Bridge, Broadway at the Harlem River

Craig Shepard leads a silent cell phone free listening walk down the entire length of Broadway. Beginning at the Broadway Bridge on the Harlem River at the Northern Tip of Manhattan, the walk goes down the entire length of Broadway, ending at Battery Park. Participants in the 8-hour walk create a bubble of silence which moves through the city, opening up a new experience with the city sounds and the music of the Make Music New York Festival. Listening stops include 2:00pm at Columbia University to listen to Sciarrino, and at 4:00 pm at 40th Street at Bryant Park to listen to Berlioz.

12 pm - 1 pm Mass Appeal Chorus
Teardrop Park (behind Poets House), 10 River Terrace

Immediately following the Dylan Thomas event, all singers are invited to an open reading session of contemporary choral music featuring pieces by New York composers including Jonathan David, Michael Dellaira, Bill Heigen, Tarik O'Regan, Bettina Sheppard, and Martha Sullivan. The reading session will be led by Fahad Siadat, director of See-A-Dot Music Publishing and C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, a professional new music chorus, and reinforced by a string quartet.

12 pm - 4pm "Voice Activated" New Music Flash Choir
Central Park, Winterdale Arch

For a second year at MMNY, Dafna Naphtali leads creative singers to take over public spaces with experimental vocal music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Featuring original, experimental, site-specific, folk improvisations and choral pieces with Dafna Naphtali, Megan Schubert, Gisburg and others.

12:30 pm-1:15 pm Mass Appeal 49 Waltzes
E. 86th St and 5th Ave

For a second year, Avant Media invites participants to realize John Cage's 1977 Ode to New York City, asking everyone and anyone to document what they hear at 147 sites (49 groups of 3) throughout the five boroughs. 12:30 pm is the meet-up for Waltz 15; a second meet-up will be held at 8:31pm for Waltz 43. 49Waltzes.com will be updated live throughout the day.

1 pm-4 pm "In (Key)": New Compositions in Celebration of Terry Riley's "In C" @ 50 Years
Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Terry Riley's In C, ComposersCollaborative, Peppergreen Media and the Cornelia Street Cafe present "In Key" -- the premiere of eleven new works by leading composer-performers, each based on "In C." Completing the octave, on the program will be: "In Db" by Eleonor Sandresky, "In D" by Lisa Maree Dowling, "In Eb" by David Borden, "In E" by Gene Pritsker, "In F" by Elliott Sharp, "In Gb" by Adam Cuthbert, "In G" by Patrick Grant, "In Ab" by Brad Balliett, "In A" by John King, "In Bb" by Vasko Dukovski, and "In B" by Jed Distler.

1 pm-4 pm Face the Music
MLK Educational Complex, 122 Amsterdam Ave

NYC's teen alt-classical ensemble, consisting of over 70 talented kids from around the city, performs works by Daniel Bernard Roumain, Gregory Huebner and Zachary Detrick at this "block party."

1 pm and 4 pm American Composers Orchestra
Sakura Park, Abrons Arts Center respectively

ACO presents the acclaimed [kaj] Ensemble to celebrate the work of the next generation of great American composers - the program will feature the newest works by high school students studying in the ACO "Compose Yourself" program.

2 pm-3 pm Mass Appeal Saxophones -- Sciarrino's La Bocca, i piedi, il suono
Low Memorial Library, Columbia Morningside Campus

In honor of the 200th birthday of Adolphe Sax, Make Music New York, in partnership with Miller Theatre, presents Salvatore Sciarrino's La Bocca, i piedi, il suono for saxophone quartet and 100 saxophones. Featuring Project Fusion as saxophone soloists, 100 saxophone players will be placed around the audience at Columbia University's Low Library Rotunda. Creating sound effects with breath, feet, and key clicking, they weave in and out of audience members, creating a ceaseless flow of saxophonists for the last twenty minutes of the work.

2 pm-3 pm Anti-Social Music
Riverside Park, Promenade at 116th

Anti-Social Music, Inc., a non-profit collective of composers and performers, will present new music by emerging, primarily New York-based musicians.

3 pm-9 pm Bargemusic
Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn

A special extended six-hour admission-free concert on the first day of summer! Performances by the Bohemian Trio, Velveteen String Quartet, Dorian Wind Quintet, and Nataliya Medvedovskaya.

3 pm and 4:30 pm Berlioz's Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale
Bryant Park

Make Music New York presents Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale -- declared "one of the great ceremonial pieces of all time" by critic Virgil Thomson -- in a massive wind band experience led by conductor Jeff W. Ball of the Brooklyn Wind Symphony. Participants will include members of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan Wind Ensemble, Montclair State University Band, West Point Band, and many more.

All day New York Walkscape
4 pm-6pm with live performers
Lower Manhattan

New York Walkscape, by Dutch composer duo Strijbos & Van Rijswijk, is a software-coded musical score that opens up an entirely new aural layer within the city. Based on the custom-built iPhone app called Walk With Me, the Walkscape blurs the boundaries between installation and composition. The composition uses melodies, rhythmic patterns, chatter, and electronic sounds from American and Dutch composers (curated from the archives of New York's MATA Festival and Holland's Gaudeamus Music Week), to re-imagine the sounds of Lower Manhattan (formerly New Amsterdam.) From 4pm -- 6pm, MATA will add live performers to harmonize with the walkscape, including Mantra Percussion (playing David Bird's Fields) and Ana Milosavljevic (playing Missy Mazzoli's Dissolve O My Heart). Presented with River to River/LMCC.

5 pm-6 pm Mass Appeal Flutes -- Henry Brant's Mass in Gregorian Chant for Multiple Flutes ("Mass for June 16")
Central Park, West Dalehead Arch

Flute players from all over NYC come together for two full performances of Henry Brant's Mass in Gregorian Chant for Multiple Flutes ("Mass for June 16"), on the 30th anniversary of the piece's premiere. The Mass is scored for as many flutists as possible, with approximately a fifth doubling on piccolo, all playing material provided in the Graduale Romanum for masses sung on June 16. Presented with the Americas Society.

7 pm-8 pm Appalachian (Summer)
Indonesian Consulate, 5 E. 68th St

Conductor Andrew Niess assembles an all-star ensemble of performers to present Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, in the original 1944 version scored for 13 instruments. Although the ballet tells the story of a springtime celebration of 19th-century pioneers erecting a Pennsylvania farmhouse, its American spirit makes just as much sense ringing through the streets of New York on a hot summer day.