A Message on KICF 2023 by Rebecca Merblum, Co-Director of the Kenya International Cello Festival

 

The soil receives.  It’s perhaps the ultimate symbol of physical listening.

 

It gathers nutrients, it holds light - it nurtures and protects.

 

It tells a story of what has been and what is to come. It’s one of only a few terms that elicits a response that carries resonance across the world. For me, soil tells the story of who we are, where we are, and the world in which we live. Certainly the soil holds our collective rhythms and sounds. It holds our moments of beauty. Of understanding. It holds our questions. It holds our truths, painful and luminous. The soil of Kenya is deep in color - red clay. It carries density and never leaves one’s line of vision. This clay holds the feet of children and adults who have been forgotten, it holds the hearts of students who rise to meet every challenge with grace, it holds the possibilities for more. 

 

The Kenya International Cello Festival now lives in that soil. Its collective heartbeat. Its wind sounds of Lemuria. Its Brazilian landscape of Clarice Assad. Its calypso rhythms of Anthony R. Green. Its solemn hymns of Bruckner and Tchaikovsky.

 

Its work. Its openings. 

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As we embark upon our 2nd season of KICF, we are breathing into more immersive worlds. The music of Reena Esmail, Nyokabi Kariũki, Piazzolla, Cesaria Evora, Whitacre, Mpumi Motsabi, and Banele Emmanuel Mtwa awaits! The music itself will illuminate the thematic world of the well-known Kenyan novel ‘Wizard of the Crow’ by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. KICF 2023 also welcomes visual artist Eyenga Bokamba, who will create an immersive set design to capture yet another world on stage as we travel through Kenya. 

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We are preparing for experiences that will take us through Nairobi, Thika, and Nyahururu. While in Nyahururu we will be surrounded by a remarkable collection of Kenyan folk music - can’t wait! Our concerts will take us to the National Theatre and Kenya Conservatoire of Music, among others. Each providing our students with new opportunities to share this ever deepening sound landscape with Kenyan audiences.

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Words feel so limited, especially for a cellist. But KICF is really a reflection of the deepest exchange of generosity. And continues to inspire us all.

 

-- Rebecca Merblum          

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