Community Music Making: The History of Sing & Play
At a typical musical festival, you go and listen to music. At UVMC’s Sing & Play Festival, you go and listen to music — and make music.
“The Sing & Play Festival builds community through music making,” said Ben Van Vliet, Executive Director of Upper Valley Music Center. “The festival includes opportunities for families to enjoy and make music together, for musicians to connect with others in the community, and for everyone to celebrate the rich musical community in the Upper Valley. The invitation is for anybody and everybody to make music in a way that is meaningful to them.”
The annual Sing & Play Festival, held on a weekend in May, invites the community to participate through busking, jams, sing-alongs, and other participatory events. Events are free and open to all ages, and take place in several downtown Lebanon locations.
The first festival — Sing and Play 50k — was held in 2018 to celebrate the culmination of UVMC’s first capital campaign, which raised funds for the new building on 8 South Park Street.
“UVMC students, faculty, and musical community members performed in a series of concerts and participatory jam sessions throughout the day, from 7:04 am to 9 pm, providing 50,000 continuous seconds of music,” Van Vliet said. “Participants collected donations from friends, families, and neighbors to support their performance time in the event and together we raised $100,000 to support the new building.”
The Sing & Play Festival in 2019 activities included an Instrument Petting Zoo and a Traditional Music Jam led by Amy Cann on the green in Lebanon. At the First Congregational Church, an eager bunch of sight readers (people who can read and perform music or text without prior preparation) joined Mark Nelson for a pick-up orchestra and pick-up band playing Oom-Pah music. Students — from the Suzuki Program to the Singing for the Stage class to soloists on violin, viola, flute, clarinet, and voice — showed their skills during afternoon recitals.
“The Sing & Play Festival is the culminating event of the year for students at the music center,” said Erin Smith, Education Director at UVMC. “Students, ranging in age from 5 to 70+, perform solos in studio recitals along with several chamber ensembles and the Sinfonia Youth Orchestra.”
During the pandemic, UVMC offered an online Sing & Play Festival in 2020 and 2021. The 2020 festival kicked off with Musical Challenges — where participants were given chances to participate in or watch a recital or attend special events — and ended with #UVMCAllTogetherNow.
“UVMC invited everyone to go outside — whether on your porch, on the street, in a field, or by opening your window — and make music all together, all over the Upper Valley,” Smith said. “Even though we couldn’t gather together in person, our amazing community of music makers rallied, and we celebrated everyone’s music making with as much enthusiasm as ever.”
After two years of online events, Sing & Play was back in 2022 with in-person options as well as online options for virtual participants. More than 2,000 people attended 10 performances and eight events in eight locations across Lebanon. Sing & Play continued to grow in 2023 and 2024, becoming the well-loved Upper Valley tradition it is today.
In 2025, as part of UVMC’s 30th anniversary season, UVMC will launch Sing & Play 30 for 30 — 30 hours of music celebrating 30 years as part of a community-wide music campaign with a challenge match of $100,000 from the Byrne Foundation.