Update: Make Music Day UK Presents John Cage 4’33”
Make Music Day is a free global music-making event that takes place each year on June 21. The event encourages participants of all ages, abilities, and cultures to come together on the summer solstice to celebrate the power of music. Make Music Day hosts events worldwide, and this year, Make Music Day UK, Beyond Skin, and John Cage Trust will debut the John Cage composition, “4’33”,” a unique collaboration performance video.
The project brings together musicians from 23 countries to perform American experimental composer John Cage's “4’33”," a 1952 three-movement composition. The score is designed for any “instrument or combination of instruments during the entire duration of the piece" and is often perceived as “four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence.” However, the composition also consists of environmental sounds that the listeners hear during the performance.
The Make Music Day project is a collaborative effort between Make Music Day UK, Beyond Skin, and John Cage Trust. Make Music Day UK hosted its first set of events in 2012 and in 2017, the annual nationwide event began. At last year’s Make Music Day UK event, there were 1,739 live and online performances.
Partnering alongside Make Music Day UK is Beyond Skin, an organization that provides “a professional service of diversity and global education using artistic methods for; local councils, education boards, schools, community groups, businesses, and social enterprises.” Launching in 2004 to combat the rise in racism and sectarianism in Northern Ireland, most projects are based in Northern Ireland. However, Beyond Skin also has flagship projects in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Sri Lanka.
Established in 1993, the John Cage Trust aims to “gather together, organize, preserve, disseminate, and generally further the work of the late American composer, John Cage. Functioning as both a repository for the composer's work, it houses an impressive collection of music, text, visual art manuscripts, as well as audio, video, and print libraries. Despite “4’33”” appearing as a blank score with no music, the non-profit still holds the intellectual property rights and publishing permissions, just like any other piece of recorded music.
The collaborative video of performances will premiere on June 21 as part of the Make Music Day broadcast.
To learn more about the performance of Make Music Day’s John Cage’s “4’33”,” please visit https://makemusicday.co.uk/john-cage-433/.
For more information about the organizations involved in John Cage: 4’33” visit them at,
Make Music Day UK: https://makemusicday.co.uk/
Beyond Skin: https://www.beyondskin.net/
John Cage Trust: https://johncage.org/about.html
Make Music Day: www.makemusicday.org
UPDATE: