3.5 hours
Arts On Site NYC, Inc.
Free Tickets Available
Wed, 31 Dec, 2025 at 09:00 pm - Thu, 01 Jan, 2026 at 12:30 am (GMT-05:00)
Arts On Site NYC, Inc.
12 Saint Marks Place, New York, United States
Say farewell to 2025 and greet 2026 with song, movement, and togetherness. We'll warm up our voices and bodies, celebrate individual offerings during a collaborative open mic, and spend the final hour of the year in an unbroken, improvised circle song. As we head into a new year, you'll be invited to reflect, dream, rejoice, grieve, and anything in between. Come alone or bring a friend!
These sessions are the heart of what we've been building here at Gaia - warm, welcoming spaces for spontaneous singing and harmonizing, led with joy, passion, and kindness by skilled circlesong and open mic facilitators.
This open mic is a unique opportunity to play with an audience, not just for them. Come experience the joys of getting the audience singing your original music, creating a collaborative soundscape for your poem, or inviting them to drum along to your story!
We'll start by making a little music together - singing some pretty chords around together, some fun call and response, that sort of thing - and then kick off our night of sharing. In this opening ceremony, we'll share some fun tricks for getting the audience participating in your art, and we encourage you to try them out!
GROUND RULES: This mic is a space for self-expression of all sorts! Mistakes, forgotten lyrics, voice cracks, and re-starts are all welcome in this space. Our goal is simply to support one another, make new connections, and celebrate creativity!
SIGN UPS will be made open AT THE EVENT. We ask that you limit your sharing to roughly 5 minutes, so that we might hear from as many folks as we’re able!
The mic is open for:
Audience participation is always exciting in this space, if you want to invite us to create with you!
In terms of supporting your art-sharing, we'll have:
WHAT IS CIRCLESINGING?
A spontaneous vocal jam, sung by all of us and led by a facilitator in the middle of the circle who invents parts, teaches improvised harmonies, and shapes the music as we flow from meditative moments to vibrant movements to heartfelt anthems and everything in between!
Circle Singing is:
Circle Singing is done all over the world in many different forms, and, while popularized by musical legends such as Bobby McFerrin and Rhiannon of WeBe3, it dates back to the earliest forms of human singing.
WHO IS LEADING THIS OPEN MIC and CIRCLESINGING SESSION?
The Open Mic will be facilitated by the brilliant Sofia Campoamor.
Sofía Campoamor (she/her) first started writing songs to make school projects more fun. This lighthearted approach to academics led her to study music at Yale University, where she performed a cappella music around the world as the first woman member of the Whiffenpoofs. School gave way to a music career; in 2022, Sofía’s word game project #wordlesong gained popularity on Tiktok and generated several of the songs for her debut album "if you knew, i couldn't tell,” an indie folk collection that blends her love of intricate vocal harmony with dreamy acoustic soundscapes to tell tales of love, longing and friendship. When she’s not touring or recording, Sofía volunteers for the nonprofit Hear Your Song, leading collaborative songwriting sessions with children managing serious illness and complex health needs. She also enjoys teaching music to kids ages 5 to 80 and singing with the Oratory Choir of St. Boniface. Sofía is so grateful to call Gaia Music Collective her creative home, and loves co-creating with the community at every collaborative open mic, songwriting circle, and choir!
The CircleSing will be facilitated by the luminous Simi Yuyu.
Simi Yuyu (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, creating magic through experiences, design, and embodied practices. Her latest album, “P O T I O N S,” was celebrated as a best new album on NPR’s ‘All Songs Considered’ in 2021.
She is passionate about the healing power of communal musicmaking. She studied vocal improvisation at Bobby Mcferrin’s Circlesong School, and seeks to empower others to reclaim their creativity and voices. She also teaches on the faculty of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Institute, offering connective music education to families in NYC.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING A CIRCLESINGING SESSION?
We begin with some easy singing games and a check-in to get to know everyone a little better. From there, the evening will follow a series of guided singing games and exercises as the group explores rhythm, movement, melody, and harmony. We practice the art of saying YES to what is happening in the moment - expressing ourselves, listening to our voices and bodies, and making stuff up.
DO I HAVE TO BE AN EXPERIENCED SINGER?
Nope! This playful, intuitive approach to singing meets you wherever you're at in your vocal journey, and allows professional artists, former choir kids, and shower singers alike to bond, collaborate, and create beautiful vocal music as a spontaneous vocal community.
WHAT GENRE OF MUSIC DO WE SING?
That's the magic of improvisation - the music we make is entirely dependent on the ensemble of folx gathered together on that particular day, and whatever musical stylings and instincts pour out of us! We will follow whatever journey the music takes us on.
THIS SOUNDS COOL, BUT I FEEL A BIT ANXIOUS...
We hear you. Singing in front of people can be really vulnerable, and we make sure to honor where everyone is at. While we will encourage you to be brave and try new things, you are also always encouraged to listen to your body and draw your own boundaries, and are invited to pass or sit out and watch if a particular game or exercise isn't for you. You will never be forced to do anything you don't want to do!
Circle Singing is a mistake-free, low-pressure, safe space to play and explore. The space we craft is one where we allow ourselves let go of the rules, restrictions, judgments, and fears of other group singing settings and just SING.
RESPECT THE SPACE:
This is a beloved venue and we want to honor them! Please be considerate of the space.
PHYSICAL ACCESSIBILITY:
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LOW-PRESSURE PARTICIPATION
Gaia Music Collective events are participatory, but low-pressure. You'll be invited to sing along and make music with us, but we encourage you to draw your own boundaries and engage at your own pace - we pride ourselves in creating a judgment-free community where you can express yourself however feels right!
LATE ARRIVALS
We ask that you arrive no later than 30 minutes after start time, after which we close the doors (lovingly) in order to preserve the intimacy and trust of the musical container we’re building. Thank you for understanding!
CANCELLATION POLICY
Tickets are refundable up to 24 hours before the event, after which we are no longer able to offer refunds. This policy helps us keep these events financially sustainable for both our community and our team. If you RSVP but are no longer able to come, please let us know so that we may offer your spot to someone else! We want as many people to be able to experience these gatherings as possible, and since capacity is limited, each spot is precious.
For more info, contact us at Z2FpYW11c2ljY29sbGVjdGl2ZSB8IGdtYWlsICEgY29t..
MEDIA CONSENT
Because we want to share what we’re up to with people who can’t join us in person, there may be photographers and videographers present — by attending, you consent to being a part of that media, some of which may be posted online! If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at Z2FpYW11c2ljY29sbGVjdGl2ZSB8IGdtYWlsICEgY29t.
NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS
Gaia is funded by sliding scale ticket donations, with a “no one turned away for lack of funds” policy. It is of the utmost importance to us that these events remain affordable and accessible - we never want money to be a barrier to making music together. If a ticket scale is financially prohibitive to you, feel free to donate outside of the scale at whatever amount is sustainable for you, or to email us at Z2FpYW11c2ljY29sbGVjdGl2ZSB8IGdtYWlsICEgY29t for volunteer opportunities or assistance!
COMMUNITY GUIDELINES
At Gaia Music Collective, we are dedicated to building a community where creativity, collaboration, and care thrive. The values listed here shape how we work together, how we engage with the world, and how we move toward upholding these principles.
OUR MISSION
Gaia Music Collective is an NYC-based creative community seeking to foster a more connected world through collective music-making. Founded in June of 2021 in a living room in Brooklyn, this project was born out of a desire to create accessible, inclusive, playful spaces for people to explore connection, expression, healing, and release through collaborative song - spaces where folks feel empowered to make music free of judgment or expectation, and to make new friends as our full, beautiful, authentic selves.
We believe that communal music-making is a fundamental human practice, and this project seeks to build spaces for folks to nurture their relationship to music, whether they're shower singers, professional musicians, or anything in between.
All are welcome in this community. Gaia seeks to foster spaces of belonging for humans of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, classes, religions, abilities, national origins, languages, and musical experiences. All we ask is that you bring an open mind, a desire to connect, and a willingness to leave judgment of self and others at the door.
FAQ
Have any questions that haven't been answered here? Check out our Event FAQs!
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Also check out other Music events in New York, Entertainment events in New York, Arts events in New York.
Tickets for GAIA NYE can be booked here.
| Ticket type | Ticket price |
|---|---|
| Sliding Scale $15-35 (Suggested Donation $25) | Free |
