Shawn Okpebholo

Last updated

Shawn Okpebholo
BornMarch 28, 1981 (1981-03-28) (age 43)
Occupation(s) Composer, conductor
Years active1995–present
Website shawnokpebholo.com

Shawn E. Okpebholo (born March 28, 1981) is an American composer and conductor.

Contents

Career

The music of Okpebholo has been performed in over twenty-five states, as well as Canada, Africa, Europe, and Asia at various distinguished venues and festivals, including the Monte Music Festival in Goa, India; the National Cathedral; MusicX Contemporary Music Festival; state music festivals of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Texas; PRIZM Ensemble Concert Series; and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro New Music Festival where he was an invited special guest lecturer and composer. Other invited guest lecture appearances and masterclasses include the University of Benin (Nigeria) and Biola University Conservatory of Music, among others. [1] [ self-published source ]

Okpebholo regularly receives commissions from noted soloists, universities, and organizations, including the Fifth House Ensemble, the International Tuba and Euphonium Association, the United States Air Force, the Ohio Music Education Association, to name a few. Some celebrated performing artists and ensembles include Cadillac Moon, Fulcrum Point, Picosa, United States Army Field Band, cellist Leonardo Altino, baritones Will Liverman and Robert Sims, mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges, pianists Paul Tuntland Sánchez and Mark Markham, euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead, flutists Caen-Thomason-Redus and Jenny Oh Brown, among others. He has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, Tangemen Sacred Music Center, Wheaton College (Aldeen Research Grant, John Stott Faculty Grant in Human Needs and Global Resources, Faculty Global Research Grant), and a Union University Pew Research Grant. His compositions can be heard on a variety of commercially released albums, including his first album solely devoted to his music, Steal Away, a collection of re-imagined Negro spirituals. [2] [3] [ self-published source ] His work, Two Black Churches, a song in two movements, was performed as part of Lyric Opera of Chicago's presentation of Lawrence Brownlee and Friends. The two texts (by Dudley Randall and Marcus Amaker, respectively) commemorate the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama (1963) and the shooting of a pastor and eight church members at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston (2015). (https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2020-21/lawrence-brownlee-and-friends/program-notes/two-black-churches/, accessed July 20, 2023.)

As an academic, Okpebholo has been in residence at many colleges and universities in both the U.S. and Nigeria, giving masterclasses, guest lecturing, and having his music featured in concert. He was one of eighteen featured composers in Volume IV of the book series, "Composers on Composing for Band," edited by Mark Camphouse. Further, his composition and research interests have been a gateway for ethnomusicological fieldwork in both East and West Africa

Okpebholo is currently professor of music theory at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. [4] [5]

Awards

Discography

Notable students

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Conservatory of Music</span> Private music school in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Hall, and is home to approximately 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies, and 1,500 more in its Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education. NEC offers bachelor's degrees in instrumental and vocal classical music performance, contemporary musical arts, composition, jazz studies, music history, and music theory, as well as graduate degrees in collaborative piano, conducting, and musicology. The conservatory has also partnered with Harvard University and Tufts University to create joint double-degree, five-year programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tania León</span> Cuban-American composer and conductor

Tania León is a Cuban-born American composer of both large scale and chamber works. She is also renowned as a conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Pinkham</span> American composer

Daniel Rogers Pinkham Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist.

Douglas Yeo is an American bass trombonist who played in the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2012, where he held the John Moors Cabot Bass Trombone Chair. He was also on the faculty of the New England Conservatory. In 2012 he retired from the BSO and accepted a position as professor of trombone at the Arizona State University School of Music, a position he held until 2016. From 2019 to 2023, he was trombone professor at Wheaton College (Illinois), and he was professor of trombone at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 2022-2024.

George Tsontakis is an American composer and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Maslanka</span> American composer

David Maslanka was an American composer of Polish descent who wrote for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music, and symphony orchestra.

Olatunji Akin Euba, was a Nigerian composer, musicologist, and pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuckamore Festival</span> Chamber music festival in Newfoundland, Canada.

The Tuckamore Festival is a chamber music festival in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. It is traditionally held annually in August for two weeks. The festival was co-founded in 2001 by violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves, classical musicians who perform together as Duo Concertante. Dahn and Steeves are the current artistic directors of the festival. This year's festival will be held online from August 8–21, 2022.

Đuro Živković, also rendered as Djuro Zivkovic, is a Serbian-Swedish composer and violinist. He has lived in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2000.

Dr. Halyna Ovcharenko is an SPNM-shortlisted composer. Born in Luhansk in Ukraine, Halyna Ovcharenko was given a scholarship at the age of eleven to the Musical College of the Kiev State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, a specialist school for talented children. Whilst at the Conservatory, she studied composition with Yurii Ishchenko unil 1987. After graduating in Music from the Conservatory, she continued her study of composition in Warsaw. She subsequently taught composition and music theory at the Kiev State Conservatory and the Sumy Pedagogical Institute, also giving master classes in composition and authentic voice performance in Poland and Serbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blair School of Music</span> Music school of Vanderbilt University

The Blair School of Music, located in Nashville, Tennessee, provides a conservatory-caliber undergraduate education in music performance, composition, or integrated music studies within the context of a major research university, Vanderbilt University. Blair also provides music lessons, classes and ensembles to over 800 precollege and adult students each semester. Blair is the youngest and smallest of Vanderbilt's ten constituent schools and colleges.

Matthew Odell is an American pianist. He has performed as both a solo and collaborative pianist, performing at a variety of locations throughout the United States including New York's Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Paris, Nice, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Taipei, and Kyoto.

Todd Brunel is an American clarinetist who leads a dual life as a crossover classical and jazz musician. In the world premiere event, 'From Requiem to Renewal' at Boston College, "clarinetist Todd Brunel and pianist Synthia Sture played with tremendous virtuosity and heart."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Rosenkranz</span> Musical artist

Thomas Rosenkranz is a contemporary American pianist, noted for performances of modern and international music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loris Chobanian</span> American-Armenian composer and performer (1933-2023)

Loris Ohannes Chobanian was an American-Armenian composer of classical music, conductor, and guitar and lute teacher and performer. He served as Professor of Composition as well as Composer-in-Residence at Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Mertl</span> American composer

Gregory Mertl is an American composer that has garnered commissions from the Tanglewood Music Center (1999), the Rhode Island Philharmonic (2000), the Tarab Cello Ensemble (2001), the Phoenix Symphony (2001), the Wind Ensembles of the Big Ten Universities (2002), the Ostrava Oboe Festival, Czech Republic, Kenneth Meyer and the Hanson Institute (2006), the University of Oregon (2013), CSTMA (2013), counter)induction (2016), the University of Niš (2016), and the Barlow Endowment for a piano concerto for pianist Solungga Liu and the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, Craig Kirchhoff, conductor, which was premiered in November, 2011 and released by Bridge Records in May 2017.

The Conservatory of Music at Wheaton College is a music conservatory located in Wheaton, Illinois. It is both a department and professional school of Wheaton College. It currently has 21 full-time faculty members and approximately 200 undergraduate music majors, and is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. The Conservatory also operates a Community School of the Arts, serving the music and arts education needs of the surrounding community.

Gregory Fritze is a former chair of the Composition Department at the Berklee College of Music. Fritze has also been a performer with Boston Ballet, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and other orchestras.

Lawrence University Conservatory of Music is a conservatory on the campus of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1894, it is one of the oldest operating conservatories in the United States. Attached to a liberal arts college, the conservatory is exclusively an undergraduate institution.

The Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto is one of several professional faculties at the University of Toronto. The Faculty of Music is located at the Edward Johnson Building, just south of the Royal Ontario Museum and north of Queen's Park, west of Museum Subway Station. MacMillan Theatre and Walter Hall are located in the Edward Johnson Building. The Faculty of Music South building contains rehearsal rooms and offices, and the Upper Jazz Studio performance space is located at 90 Wellesley Street West. In January 2021, the Faculty announced Dr. Ellie Hisama as the new Dean starting July 1, 2021.

References

  1. "Bio". Shawn Okpebholo. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
  2. http://ccm.uc.edu/musicx/Bios/shawnokpebholo.htmlRetrieved June 1, 2011. Archived March 15, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Home". shawnokpebholo.com.
  4. "Shawn E. Okpebholo". www.curnowmusicpress.com. Archived from the original on August 23, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  5. "Shawn Okpebholo".
  6. "Elliot Leung '16, #30under30", Wheaton College