Grace Opyd started acting when she was a child, which makes the junior student actor at Illinois State University a stage veteran by now. But this week marks a breakout role as she appears in “Charles Ives: A Sesquicentennial Festival.” The festival honors the American composer and the 150th anniversary of his birth.

“I started acting in fourth grade when my mom put me in summer camp,” Opyd said. “Ever since this has been my thing.”

The festival is a joint project of the School of Music and the Department of History, with participation from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Film, along with support from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts.

Alan Lessoff, University Professor of history at Illinois State, is one of the local organizers. He said this has been a unique experience.

“I’ve never done anything like this before, and History Department programs usually take a different form, but it has been great to work across colleges this way,” Lessoff said.

The festival’s slate of campus events runs from February 19-21. Free and open to the public, it begins with a showing of Charles Ives’s America, a documentary film produced by music scholar Joseph Horowitz on Wednesday, February 19, at 7 p.m., at the Normal Theater in Uptown Normal. Horowitz will also provide commentary.

Next on the schedule is Charles Ives, a Life in Music at Kemp Recital Hall, Centennial East, on Thursday, February 20, at 11 a.m. The show tells Ives’ life story through his music. Baritone Sidney Outlaw and pianist Steven Mayer will be joined by Opyd, who is the only Illinois State actor in the production. Opyd, an acting and public relations double major, heard about the role from a faculty member.

“The head of the acting program, Lori Adams, reached out to some of us acting students, and I happened to see the email right away,” she said. “I thought it would be a great way to get myself out there.”

Opyd is playing three different roles. She plays the historian stating facts and establishing the timeline as narrator. She also plays Ives’ wife Harmony and the role of Edith, his daughter. Opyd admitted to some jitters, especially since this will be the first time she acts with actors from outside of the University, but she’s ready to perform.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to get to know new people. I’m also really happy that it’s about music because music has been a huge part of my life forever.”

Adams, a professor in the School of Theatre and Dance, is excited to see her student take on the challenge.

“I am thrilled that Grace is part of the Charles Ives Festival,” Adams said. “Grace is known for bringing unexpected life and freshness to whatever production she is part of. I have no doubt the same will hold true again.”

Also on Thursday, February 20, Ives, Transcendentalism, and the Concord Sonata will be performed at 7:30 p.m. in Kemp Recital Hall. Mayer will perform, and Outlaw will present readings with commentary provided by guest scholars and Illinois State faculty.

“Charles Ives and the Gilded Age,” a lecture by Horowitz, including commentary, takes place on Friday, February 21, at 11 a.m. in Kemp Recital Hall.

In addition, there are several student-focused master classes and related events that round out the festival schedule.

The Charles Ives at 150 celebration is a project of the Music Unwound consortium, a National Endowment of the Humanities-funded initiative. The purpose of Music Unwound is to develop programs that emphasize the interconnection between music and the humanities.

Illinois State is the fourth site the festival has visited. Other locations have included the Brevard, North Carolina, Music Festival, July 2024; Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, September-October 2024; and New York’s Bard College, with an additional performance at Carnegie Hall, November 2024.

Being part of bringing accessible, first-rate performances to the community has been satisfying to Lessoff, and the content has multiple connections to history.

“For me personally, it deepens and invigorates and broadens some long-standing intellectual interests and connections, and there’s a lot of real U.S. intellectual and cultural history behind this, as well as music history,” he said. “It’s also great for Grace to have a chance to work with first-rate performers and scholars. She gets to see upfront how much is behind a performance like the one she’s involved with.”