Theme of the Week: Fabulous Flashmobs!
Make Music Day 2018 has several strands which might inspire you to action. In the first of a series of Make Music Day preview posts we will be looking at each strand in detail to provide inspiration for your Make Music Day performances.
Today’s theme is…flashmobs!
Love them or hate them, there’s no doubt that a well-executed flashmob performance can soften the hardest of hearts, and spread the power of music to a huge crowd with very little effort.
Orchestras on the loose
The finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is a pretty popular orchestral flashmob choice, but this Japanese performance is surely one of the most accomplished, with no simplification of the original, and the entire movement, including solos, performed from memory!
Alternatively, how about this medley including Verdi and Wagner, which features a mind-boggling 1000 musicians (950 amateur players plus 50 members of the German Symphony Orchestra), who took over this shopping centre in Berlin:
Traffic and Travel
A big railway station is always a good venue for a large-scale flashmob.
Brussels wanted to promote bicycle use, so they filled the main rail station with a massive ensemble performing Queen’s Bicycle Race – with plenty of stunt riders to keep the crowds entertained:
Meanwhile, making a particularly seamless transition from anonymous tube travellers to a cappella superstars, here are The Swingle Singers doing what they do best:
Or, for a more audience-participatory feel, how about this singalong – with lyric sheets – which would brighten up even the dullest commute:
Food for Thought
Apparently, Handel and Food are natural flashmob allies.
This food court in Canada was definitely not prepared for a special Hallelujah lunch:
Meanwhile Classic FM went wild in the aisles to celebrate their 20th anniversary with this Zadok the Priest flashmob in Morrison’s:
Small but mighty
Ukuleles might not be the most overpowering of instruments, but if you have hundreds of them, they can be pretty epic! Check out this ukulele takeover of Trafalgar Square:
And finally…
Not to blow our own trumpet, our choral flashmob in Paternoster Square for Make Music Day 2017 was pretty good too.
Got another favourite flash mob? Tell us about it in the comments, or even better, try and recreate it where you live for Make Music Day on 21 June 2018. Have a look at the resources on the Make Music Day website to help you bring your grand ideas to life.
