Conservatory

Make Music Day Appleton is an annual event celebrated worldwide as part of the Fête de la Musique. The Fête de la Musique is a festival that takes place in over 1,000 cities in more than 120 countries on the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 each year. This day is set aside to celebrate music in all its diverse forms and encourages people to come together and play free public concerts.

This year, on Friday, June 21, 2024, Appleton will host a variety of events at various locations in the heart of our beloved city, along College Avenue. 

Make Music Day Appleton is open to anyone and everyone! All ages, skill levels, and musical categories are welcome to participate in this exciting event.

Learn more on the Make Music Day Website!

Make Music Day Appleton Schedule

In the case of inclement weather, events will be moved indoors.

11:00 – 11:30 | Family Music with Ms. Karli @ Heid Music Back Lot

Interactive music making for families & focused for kids ages 1-5

11:00 – 12:00 | Indigenous Rattle Making @ Building for Kids

In collaboration with First Nations Outreach, Inc. you’ll be making a Turtle Rattle out of household items that our young ones can take home with their family. We will also be sharing the significance of the Turtle in the Indigenous Culture. A singing performance will follow with additional engagement from the audience. Free with admission to the Building for Kids is an Indigenous rattle making workshop.

11:05 – 11:50 | Introduction to Mariachi @ Lawrence University

Learn about and experience mariachi singing and guitar.

11:30 – 12:15 | Roomful of Pianos @ Heid Music Piano Gallery

Repertoire will range from classical to rock, with a special tribute to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for its 100th anniversary, featuring a unique multi-piano arrangement for an unforgettable experience.

11:30 – 12:30 | Dance Workshop with Moulin Rouge Cast @Appleton YMCA (Don’t need to be a member to participate)

A cast member from Broadway touring production of Moulin Rouge will be leading a group through a dance workshop with moves from the show.

12:00 – 1:00 | Bluegrass Jam with Debbie Wagner @ Heid Music Back Lot

Join us for a Bluegrass Jam session with Debbie Wagner, where you’ll learn to play without sheet music (Chords: G, C, D, A), embrace jam etiquette, and connect with fellow musicians, whether you play guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bass, ukulele, or sing—come jam, sing along, or enjoy the live music! Bring a capo, chair and get ready to jam!

1:00 – 5:00 | Instrument Petting Zoo @ Heid Music

Explore and play a wide variety of musical instruments at the Heid Music Instrument Petting Zoo, open to all skill levels. With guidance from Heid Music Sales Specialists, enjoy a fun and educational experience with brass, string, woodwind, and percussion instruments.

1:00 – 5:00 | Open Mic @ Heid Music Guitar Gallery

Join us for Make Music Day at our Open Mic Extravaganza from 1pm to 5pm, where musicians of all styles and skill levels can showcase their talents in a supportive environment. All instruments and genres are welcome—enjoy diverse performances, connect with local musicians, and celebrate the spirit of music and community in 10-minute time slots.

1:00 – 4:00 | Guitar Restring & Care Overview @ Heid Music Guitar Gallery

Join us anytime from 1-4pm to learn more about care for your guitar and there is a limited supply of strings from Elixir Strings with a complimentary guitar restring from Heid Music.

1:00 – 1:45 | In Harmony Workshop @ Fox Cities PAC – KC Theater

Step into a world of inclusive music-making with us! Music therapists from Expressive Therapies and a quartet from the talented Fox Valley Symphony are partnering to offer an interactive experience for all ages and abilities. Discover the therapeutic joys of music while unleashing your creativity, whether you’re a seasoned musician or a newcomer. Together, we’ll explore endless musical possibilities and create harmonies that resonate with your soul.

1:00 – 1:30| Bucket Drumming @Houdini Plaza

Join us for an exhilarating bucket drumming event during the Appleton Make Music Day celebrations, featuring the energetic and talented Jack Mutschler. This fun-filled session invites participants of all ages and skill levels to explore the rhythmic world of drumming using everyday buckets.

1:30 – 2:00 | Exploring the music of Trinidad – Steel Drum/Jumbie Jam Fun @ Heid Music Back Lot

Join us to celebrate and discover the music from the Caribbean Island of Trinidad! Together we will take a journey to learn how the amazing Steel Drums or Steel Pans came about. Starting with bamboo sticks, called Tamboo Bamboo to what is known today as Steel Pans! You will get to learn and play along with us on Tamboo Bamboo and a smaller Steel Pan called Jumbie Jams! Use of Jumbie Jams courtesy of Panyard & The Building for Kids.

2:00 – 2:45 | Harmonica Workshop 101 @ Heid Music Back Piano Gallery

Harmonica Workshop 101 with Lee Nimmer and Michael Twombly, and Rob Burkham. Experience multiple styles of harmonica, straight harp and cross harp. Lee and Michael will cover the basics of chords, scales, rhythm, and leads. See a disassembled harmonica and learn the history behind the one instrument that you can not see while playing!

2:00 – 2:45 | Dragon Legacy Workshop @ Fox Valley PAC – KC Theater

Traditional Chinese Dance with long sleeves- Lu Zhang
Chinese Folk Dance with fans- Fox Valley Ladies’ Dance team
Chinese Flute- Roger
Waist Drum – Jianhua Cheng
Authentic Chinese dance – Min Huang

2:00 – 3:00 | Uke Jam @ Houdini Plaza

Join us for a delightful uke jam session during the Appleton Make Music Day celebrations, led by the talented Katie DeNure. This joyous event invites ukulele enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels to come together and strum along to their favorite tunes. Katie, renowned for her warm teaching style and musical expertise, will guide participants through a variety of songs, providing tips and techniques to enhance your playing.

3:00 – 3:45 | Flowerpot Music @ Heid Music Education Annex

Flowerpot Music, an innovative composition by acclaimed composer Elliot Cole and under the direction of percussionist Peter Ferry, showcases the unlikely yet enchanting sounds of flowerpots.

3:00 – 3:45 | IndUS Workshop @ Fox Valley PAC

Join us at the IndUS Workshop for an immersive experience in traditional Indian dancing, where participants of all ages can learn and enjoy vibrant dance forms. This enriching workshop celebrates the rich cultural heritage of India, offering a unique opportunity to connect with the rhythm and grace of Indian dance

3:00 – 3:45 | Drum Making Workshop @ Building for Kids

Join us for an exciting drum-making workshop during the Appleton Make Music Day celebrations, led by the creative and skilled Beth Vanderloop. This hands-on event invites participants of all ages to craft their own unique drums using a variety of materials.

5:00 – 5:45 | Sing (or Play!)-A-Long Showcase @ Houdini Plaza

This singalong (or play-along!) showcase will be hosted by Jennifer Harlee, and will feature many well-known hits. Bring your instrument or your voice and join in the fun!

Friday, June 7 | 7:30-9 p.m.
Memorial Chapel

Celebrate the class of 2024 musicians in this annual concert! Please also join us for a reception in Shattuck 163 following the concert.

Friday, May 17 | 6 p.m.
Wriston Amphitheatre
Rain Site: Memorial Chapel

Conducted by Andrew Mast

Featuring familiar favorites of stage and screen, the final concert of the year for the Lawrence University Wind Ensemble will feature music from Star Wars, Phantom of the Opera, The Avengers, West Side Story, and many others. Professor of Saxophone Joe Connor (‘12) and Professor of Percussion Jean Carlo Ureña González will be featured in Catch Me If You Can, and the concert will close with music from the greatest musical of all time, The Music Man.

We’ll be in the Wriston Amphitheatre, which is right across the street from our usual location of the Memorial Chapel. Sit outside and enjoy great music, have a bite while you listen and enjoy a family-friendly, post-work time.

In the infinitesimally small chance of rain, we’ll be in the Chapel, but still at 6 p.m. But it’s not going to rain!

Support our amazing students and enjoy a beautiful spring evening!

Featuring Guests Dewa Ayu Eka Putri and I Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena

Sunday, May 19 | 3-4:30 p.m.
Memorial Chapel

Three ensembles (the LU student gamelan, and the community and children’s gamelans of the Lawrence Community Music School) will be joined by Indonesian performing artists Dewa Ayu Eka Putri and I Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena. Both guests come from respective families with deep roots in Balinese performing arts and work to bridge indigenous cultural practices with contemporary global perspectives.

This concert is free and open to the public!

About Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena

Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena is an Indonesian artist-scholar serving as Assistant Professor of Music (Performance and Creativity), where he directs the Balinese Sound Ensemble and teaches courses on Heavy Metal Music, Electronic Music, and Noise and Activism. He also is a founding member of Balinese Experimental duo, ghOstMiSt, with dancer-anthropologist, Dewa Ayu Eka Putri; PAK Yeh (free-improvisation trio) from Denver, Colorado; and T.A.T.W.D. (improvised noise-metal trio) from Urbana, Illinois.

Hiranmayena’s academic, performance, and compositional research focuses on the intersections of Cosmology, Indigeneity, Environmental Activism, and Performativity in Balinese Gamelan, Heavy Metal, and Noise. He takes post-colonial, performance studies, and creative ethnographic approaches to looking at the state of sound in the social sciences and humanities. His work constitutes equitable forms of knowledge production in the form of public-facing academic articles and Glocal creative artistic pieces.

As a creative ethnographer, Hiranmayena has written articles, coupled with artistic compositions, that interrogate the state of performance in South-East Asian performing arts. Most notably, his articles, “If a Dragon Dies in the Forest, Do Humans Hear a Sound?” (2022); “Fix Your Face”: Performing Attitudes Between Mathcore and Beleganjur,” (2022); “ghOstMiSt’s Trails of Indigeneity,” (2021), discuss myriad of perspectives on traditional, popular, and experimental Balinese performance idioms. Hiranmayena continues to perform and compose internationally while also maintaining status as board member of Insitu Recordings and Gamelan Tunas Mekar.

About Dewa Ayu Eka Putri

Dewa Ayu Eka Putri is a Balinese artist-anthropologist and is currently a Lecturer of Dance at Grinnell College. She teaches courses on Balinese Dance and Performing Arts, specializing in traditional and contemporary dance styles. Putri also maintains her position as dance instructor at the critically acclaimed arts organization, Sanggar Cudamani, from Pengosekan, Bali, Indonesia.

She received her B.A. from Universitas Udayana in cultural anthropology and is a leading figure in women’s gamelan ensembles all around Bali. Born into a family of artists, Dewa Ayu is internationally known for her collaborations of traditional and contemporary works in theater, music, and dance while actively working as a freelance research assistant. The majority of her work advocates for the legal protection of women and children which is highlighted in various discursive artistic modalities.

Currently, Putri has international projects with organizations in Mexico, Switzerland, and Japan, as well as annual projects in Indonesia. She also organizes the performing arts shelf in the virtual library at BasaBali Wiki.

Monday, May 13 | 7-8 p.m.
Shattuck 163

Indonesian guest-artists Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena and Dewa Ayu Eka Putri will present ghOstMiSt, a Balinese experimental music and dance duo that focuses on practices of reflexive improvisation toward phenomenological inquiries into confronting cultural contradictions. The project was born in 2020 out of frustrations with exoticist interactions and a desire to confront cultural contradictions through performance. ghOstMiSt promotes self-expression defined by negotiating cultural processes between local and global sensibilities.

This performance is free and open to all.

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Friday, April 26 | 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Chapel

Praised by Opera News for “high notes with ease, singing with a luxuriant warm glow that seduced the ear as he bounded about the stage with abandon,” American tenor David Portillo has established himself as a leading classical singer of his generation. In 2022-23, David Portillo will showcase his talent for concertgoers and in a range of notable projects, including performances as Tamino in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, Ferrando in Così fan tutte with The Dallas Opera, Nadir in The Pearl Fishers with Austin Opera, and assume the title role in Handel’s Jephtha with Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque.

David Portillo, tenor, with Craig Terry, piano

Friday, April 26 | 7:30-9 p.m.
Memorial Chapel

Praised by Opera News for “high notes with ease, singing with a luxuriant warm glow that seduced the ear as he bounded about the stage with abandon,” American tenor David Portillo has established himself as a leading classical singer of his generation. In 2022-23, David Portillo will showcase his talent for concertgoers and in a range of notable projects, including performances as Tamino in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, Ferrando in Così fan tutte with The Dallas Opera, Nadir in The Pearl Fishers with Austin Opera, and assume the title role in Handel’s Jephtha with Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque.

Friday, April 19 | 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Memorial Chapel

Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and Lawrence University Choirs present Mozart’s “Great Mass in C Minor.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Overture to The Magic Flute, K. 620
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Mass in C minor, K. 427 “Great”

This event is free and open to the public! You can also catch the live webcast here.

Saturday, April 13 | 2-3:30 p.m.
Harper Hall

This event is free and open to the public!

Pianist Ksenia Nosikova, praised as “First rate” (Germany’s Fono Forum), “Full of dramatic intensity” (London’s International Piano), “Subtle and expressive” (France’s Journal L’Alsace) “Impressive musicianship, musically very poetic” (Boston Globe), and “Refined sensibility and exquisite pianism” (New York Concert Reviews), has performed extensively in Europe, Asia, Russia, USA, Canada, and South America. The scope of her concert engagements expands from prestigious professional concert venues, such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York City, Shanghai City Hall in China, City Hall Theatre in Hong Kong, Chetham’s International Piano Series in England, and Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, to major academic institutions world-wide, including over 180 American universities’ guest artist series. Her diverse and extensive repertoire list consists of masterworks and lesser-known pieces, as well as over 30 piano concertos.

She has recorded for Profil Medien, Albany Records, Centaur Records, and Capstone Records labels. Among her nine critically-acclaimed recordings are the complete Years of Pilgrimage by Franz Liszt, called an ‘outstanding achievement’ by Classics Today and “super disc” by London’s International Piano magazine. A graduate of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and University of Colorado, Dr. Ksenia Nosikova is a Professor of Piano and Co-Chair of Piano Department at the University of Iowa. Her students have won prizes at various national and international competitions and have been accepted to prominent music programs, including Curtis, Juilliard, Colburn, Eastman, and Peabody. She has presented over 300 master classes in the US and abroad, most recently at the Beijing Central, China, Shanghai, Wuhan, Xian, Sichuan, Tianjin, and Shenyang conservatories and Hong Kong Academy in China.

She is an artist faculty member of the Semper International Music Festival in Italy and Wiener MusikSeminar International Master Classes in Austria. Her 2019-2020 concert engagements have taken her to Brazil, China, Singapore, Thailand, and Prague. She is a member of the American Liszt Society’s Board of Directors and the Artistic Director of Piano Sundays at Old Capitol Concert Series (IA). Ksenia Nosikova is a Steinway Artist.