Xenakis on the lake, 2010.
Make Music NY, the midsummer music bacchanal, has released some details of its 2012 edition, which falls this year on a Thursday. The most logistically ambitious offering is a Central Park Lake performance of Alvin Curran's Maritime Rites, with ninety musicians from West Point and Montclair State playing on rowboats. The Mass Appeal series carries on with what is billed as the American premiere of Prokofiev's Sonata for Unaccompanied Violins — the piece was originally intended to be played by dozens of violinists in unison. Satie's Vexations, all eighteen hours of it, will be heard in a version for vibraphones. (There will be various performances of the Satie-Cage marathon at Make Music events around the world.) In the pop zone, Punk Island returns, Colombian chiva buses make their way around the Upper East Side, and jazz combos work the High Line. More will be announced in coming weeks. The Make Music idea is slowly spreading in North America: Los Angeles, Denver, Baltimore, and Santa Fe are to introduce festivals this year, joining New York, Chicago, Pasadena, and Vancouver.
Previously: Symphony of the City, Make Music snapshots.
