MusicIC to offer celebration of ‘transcendence’

A journey from lightness to darkness and everything there in between.

This is what John Kenyon, executive director of the UNESCO City of Literature, is hoping those who attend the annual MusicIC Festival in Iowa City obtain by reaching a state of transcendence through the chamber music.

Celebrating the relationship between literature and chamber music, MusicIC enters its seventh season Wednesday and continues through June 24 with a final performance at the Iowa City Public Library.

The festival, which originated years ago, was part of the Iowa City Summer of the Arts. But, it never quite fit right in that organization.

As MusicIC began to grow and receive recognition as a smaller, indoor, performance-based festival, Kenyon said it needed to find a new home.

Serving as a board member for Summer of the Arts and also executive director of the UNESCO City of Literature, he said conversations began for a transition.

'Long story short, we all came to the conclusion that this was a good festival that needed a new home and the City of Literature was a good fit for that,” Kenyon said.

Kenyon said the festival adds to what the City of Literature does as an organization and helps broaden people's concept of literature itself.

'For us to bring music into that conversation - music inspired by literature or literature inspired by music - it expands what literature could be,” he said.

The festival opens Wednesday night with a free concert at Trinity Episcopal Church with the theme of 'Lightness” and continues there Thursday night, transitioning the focus to 'Darkness.”

On June 23, the festival moves to the Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St. The theme for the concert is 'Transcendence,” featuring Beethoven's String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132. Tickets are $15 at Musicic.org/program-notes/

Music throughout the festival will be performed by the Solera Quartet, featuring MusicIC director Tricia Park and Sophia Cloud on violins, Molly Carr on viola and Andrew Janss on cello.

Crediting the theme, work selection and performances to Park, Kenyon said that when discussing the direction of the festival earlier in the year, he and Park considered the climate of America, specifically after the election.

'The fact that there has been a lot of music written through dark circumstances and also music that is light ... music really does help people transcend circumstances,” Kenyon said.

The festival ends with a free Family Concert at 10:30 a.m. June 24 at the Iowa City Public Library. Youths will read work written in response to the theme of Haydn's 'Sunrise Quartet,” in partnership with the Iowa Youth Writing Project.

'What I love is seeing people who, because it's a city of literature event, are willing to come out and check it out and walk away thinking ‘OK, I can appreciate chamber music,' ” Kenyon said.