Friday was San Antonio’s first Make Music Day. TPR headquarters hosted multiple events that filled many ears with various sounds and hosted exhibits to help anyone and everyone create musical experiences.
Make Music Day has been celebrated across the globe for decades and 42 years later, San Antonio is joining the party. Originally launched in France in 1982, Make Music Day is open to every kind of musician — young, old, amateur and professional—and encourages people to share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers.
Krystal Jones, the executive director of the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture, opened the day's festivities with a proclamation declaring June 21 as Make Music Day in the city.
“We have artists that are our neighbors, our co-workers, our residents, and then we have artists that are doing this all day every day for the benefit of our community showcasing San Antonio's talent, culture and heritage,” she said.
Traditions such as Mass Appeal have been going on for 16 years. This tradition focuses on bringing together people to make music in large, single-instrument groups. Drum groups as large as 10 people sat in a circle next to San Pedro Creek.
Walking from the creek to TPR’s Malú and Carlos Alvarez Theater, the ambiance of melodic guitar loops and synthesized notes flooded the air.
Sounds from the installation Svara-Svapna, created by A.M. Architect is an interactive exhibit that invites people to create music with movement.
“We're an electronic music group that started doing live visuals and realize that we don't have to be playing live for these,” said Diego Chavez. “We could make it a standalone installation.”
The Svara-Svapna installation is operated by using both hands and grabbing various circles through a projector. Chavez enjoys watching people participate and get creative with music.
“Each hand represents a different instrument, and there's 24 different patterns each hand can get, so that's 48. And together with two players, it's 96 different patterns,” said Chavez.
Musician Scott Bauman, a local San Antonio experimental electronic artist who goes by Om.I.God, was one of the first people to participate in Make Music Day.
“I'm really taken aback by how well they managed to include a bunch of samples that all go together, pretty much no matter where you have your hands,” said Bauman. “The seamlessness of the experience of two people being able to manipulate like some synthesizer stuff going on,” he said.
Several artists—including Andria Rose, Pop Pistol, and The 501s—will also be performing throughout the day. Make Music Day will continue to play music all day for free until 10:00 p.m. at TPR Headquarters.
