Victor Garcia Combines Music and Art

Music Institute of Chicago faculty member and trumpeter Victor Garcia is participating in a project that explores the relationship between visual art and music. Call and Response is an exhibition/performance at the Evanston Art Center that investigates the aesthetic, technical and conceptual intersections that often lead to multiple levels of engagement between visual and musical artists while working collaboratively.

Artists and musicians often borrow routinely from each other’s vocabulary when describing their work, for example, the “color” of a song, or the “rhythm” of a painting. Call and Response paired visual artists with musicians, including Victor Garcia, and asked them to cross pollinate each other’s works. The resulting music will be performed at the exhibition opening on March 9 at 2:00pm. The exhibition continues through April 13.

Victor Garcia, who teaches trumpet and jazz studies at MIC, is the consummate improviser, accustomed to reacting to what is in his environment and turning it into music.  The prospect of collaborating with a visual artist was a very intriguing concept for him.  Garcia’s partner in the project is Jack Flynn, a Chicago artist who works mainly in oils. Flynn’s haunting landscapes are unadorned but powerfully very evocative.

The Evanston Art Center is located at 2603 Sheridan Road in Evanston. Call & Response opening reception and performances have a suggested $10 donation. Otherwise, galleries are free and open to the public. If you have an interest in studying with Victor Garcia, visit the Jazz Studies page of the Music Institute of Chicago.