After careful deliberations by our expert panel, MMNY is proud to announce this year’s winning “musical handshake” by singer/harpist Elissa Weiss of Manhattan.

Download the Handshake here! (pdf)

This handshake will be exchanged between musicians throughout the day on June 21st, and will also serve as an improvisational element for the evening’s Mass Appeal afterparty in Central Park, led by David Amram.

Says Elissa Weiss: “When I read about the Musical Handshake contest, the first thing that came to my mind was a bird I heard singing all weekend last summer in Vermont. I never saw the bird or found out what it was, but I couldn’t forget the song. Because of its haunting simplicity, I used it as the main theme for the handshake and put it in the key of C, the “people’s key,” so that any musician at any skill level can easily play it.”

Congratulations to Elissa, and thanks to the 22 composers who submitted handshakes of their own!

We’re extending the open call for composers and musicians to write a “musical handshake” – a single melody to serve as the secret lingua franca for hundreds of MMNY musicians.

New deadline: Monday, May 11th, 11:59pm

This musical handshake will be used throughout the day by trombones to greet banjos, flutists to greet cymbals, and harmonicas to greet sitars, with the hope that momentary greetings will turn into longer sessions of musical conversations.

Then, the handshake will receive its public unveiling as the improvisatory foundation for our after-party of musical mayhem in Central Park, part of this year’s Mass Appeal project. We’ll invite every Mass Appeal musician to join the party, bringing large groups of instruments to jam together on the handshake theme.

MMNY welcomes composers and musicians to submit musical handshakes of up to 10 seconds, consisting of a short melody made up of two phrases, forming a call and response. The composition should be playable by nearly all instruments and all musicians, from amateurs to professionals. Entries should be emailed to musicalhandshake@makemusicny.org.

Click here for full Musical Handshake guidelines!