Cellist Mike Block Asks Musicians to 'Play for the Vote'

By Laurie Niles: Want to get some positive vibes going on Election Day in the United States? Consider bringing your instrument to a polling location and making some live music - you can sign up here, as part of "Play for the Vote." "Play for the Vote" is a non-partisan effort was founded in 2020 by cellist Mike Block, a Cleveland Institute- and Juilliard-trained multi-style musician known for innovation, collaboration and outreach. He's also just a really nice guy. The idea came to him in his practice room at home, following a debate between Presidential candicates in the 2020 election. "It was the last month before the 2020 election," Block said last week in an interview with CelloBello (see that full interview here.) "I was practicing while thinking about the presidential debate I had watched the night before - it was so stressful, and the rhetoric was so heated." But as he practiced, Block noticed something interesting: he was starting to feel better. "I was starting to relax a little bit, after playing cello," Block said. "I thought to myself, if music is making me feel better, maybe I'll go to my polling location and play for my neighbors on election day, and it will help them feel better." Then he reflected on all the musician friends he has, and he started to think bigger: "What if everybody I know went to a polling location to play music?" And so "Play for the Vote" began, and 2020 they signed up some 1,500 musicians performing at 700 locations across the United States.

Violinist Corinna Smith performing at the polls for "Play for the Vote" in 2020.

This year, "our goal is to activate 20,000 musicians in 5,000 polling locations, across all 50 states," Block said. He has some big names behind him - Yo-Yo Ma took to social media to promote the effort (see that video here): "Hello my fellow musicians," Ma said. "You are all citizen musicians. Would you all consider going to the polls, bring your instrument and play, to inspire and thank the people for doing their citizens' duty for out country. Thank you so much, and I'll see you at the polls." "Our simple goal is to make voting a more positive, community-building experience," Block said. "We think that music has the unique power to bring people together." "We believe that it doesn't matter who you're voting for, but everybody is actually showing up to a polling location with the shared purpose of thinking about the future of our democracy, and having our voices heard," Block saod. "So we want people to feel the shared sense of purpose that voting is about." Want to do it? Sign up to "Play for the Vote" here! Here is a video they made about it: * * *

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