Posted by Meredith on Thursday, Sep 10, 2015
The Iowa City Public Library is ready to rock!
Join us as we celebrate all things musical with Music is the Word, nine months of special programming to help our community welcome the University of Iowa School of Music building to downtown Iowa City. The Voxman Music Building is currently scheduled to open in the fall of 2016.
We kick things off with our Music is the Word Musical Revue at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, at The Englert Theatre. This variety show will feature live performances by local musicians playing everything from bluegrass and rock to vocal choir and ethnic love songs. Performers include: The Beggarmen with the Champagne Academy of Irish Dance; Kol Shira; Combined Efforts Theatre Men’s Choir; The Extra Credit Project; Girls Rock; The Recliners; The City, Too: Addie Bass and Eddy Galstad; Chase Garrett; Andy Parrott Trio; The Cedar County Cobras; and members of the UI Pep Band.
General admission tickets for MITW Musical Revue are $10 each; children 5 and under are free. Everyone must have a ticket to the show, free or paid, to gain entry to the Englert. All performers are donating their time and talent to the Musical Revue; ticket proceeds will help support additional Music is the Word programming. Tickets are for sale at Library’s first floor Help Desk and The Englert Theatre’s website at www.englert.org.
Other Music is the Word events happening in September include:
Noon Wednesday, Sept. 23, in the Library Lobby: Music on Wednesdays featuring Scott Cochran and Matt Kearney. Take a few minutes during your lunch hour for a live musical performance.
10:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in Meeting Room A: Preschool Storytime featuring Preucil School of Music, Music Together. Music Together is an innovative, research-based program for children ages newborn to four years old and their parents or caregivers. This approach develops every child's birthright of basic music competence by encouraging the actual music experience through song, rhythm, movement and instrument play.
12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, in Meeting Room A: Reading by David Gaines, author of “In Dylan Town: A Fan’s Life.” For fifty years, the music, words, story, and fans of Bob Dylan have fascinated David Gaines. As a son, a husband, a father, a teacher, and a passionate lover of the literary in all its guises, he has pursued the poetic fusion of knowledge and emotion all his life. More often than not, Dylan’s lyrics and music have expressed that fusion for him, and so he has encouraged others to acknowledge the musician or writer or painter or director or actor or athlete who matters deeply (perhaps a bit mysteriously) to them, and to deploy that enigmatic passion in service of self-knowledge and social connection. Gaines will begin reading at 1 p.m. Douglas Kramer Nye will provide live music beginning at 12:30 p.m.
2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Storytime Room: “Mary Poppins” Sing-Along.
2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, in Meeting Room A: Family Concert featuring Celtic Guitarist and Storyteller Jerry Barlow. Jerry Barlow’s unique and skillfully delivered repertoire incorporates favorite traditional pieces as well as his own Celtic-inspired compositions. His expressive arrangements of lively jigs, spirited reels, and haunting airs is described as music to soothe the soul, warm the heart and lift the spirit. Barlow’s latest CD, “‘Twas the Night, Songs of Christmas,” was released in early December of 2013 to excellent reviews. His 2011 recording, “Fields and Fences,” was one of five nominees for Instrumental Album of the Year by the Independent Music Awards. The Indie Acoustic Project, an international award that celebrates the best independent acoustic music, selected the title song from Jerry’s CD, “Bring Down The Storm,” as “one of the best songs of 2006.”
A listing of all Music is the Word events can be found at icpl.org/mitw.
For more information, contact the Library at (319) 356-5200.