Aaron Friedman, president and founder of Make Music New York, speaks with AIR's Jeannie Hopper about the history of the organization, which has its roots in the establishment, in 1982, of a musical holiday in France that is celebrated every year on June 21. Upon first seeing this in 1996, Friedman decided that New York deserved a musical holiday of its own, one which, like its French cousin, would also happen on the first day of summer and serve to bring musicians from the city out into the streets to perform. He discusses the growth of his interest in sound and music in the public sphere, beginning with his legal actions taken against car alarms and continuing with the rapidly expanding annual event. The work of the pioneering composer Iannis Xenakis, the subject of several exhibitions and performances over the past year, has a central role in the 2010 Mass Appeal series, which was created in 2009 to host performances of compositions written for a single type of instrument. Friedman talks about several of the scheduled performances, including a block party at the Astor Place Cube, a goth rock show at a cemetery and a workshop for kids to build instruments out of electronic parts.

The Artistic Advisors of Make Music New York include such luminaries as Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Don Byron, John Corigliano, Paquito D'Rivera and Lee Renaldo.