REDLIN[ING] (FOR PIERROT + PERCUSSION)
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Redlin[ing], a composition for Pierrot ensemble with percussion, commissioned by the Picosa ensemble and generously supported by a Chamber Music America grant, represents my musical response to discriminatory financial practices in major cities, including my own Chicago. In the 20th century, specific neighborhoods were flagged as high-risk for investment based on racial and socioeconomic factors, leading to denials of loans or insurance in these marked areas. These marginalized zones were frequently highlighted in red on maps, giving rise to the term 'redlining.' Inspired by the high-octane energy of urban life, I endeavored to musically capture the tension inherent in communities affected by discriminatory policies. Additionally, I aimed to portray the perpetuating cycles of poverty and segregation resulting from these systemic injustices. To explicitly tie the work to Chicago, the composition’s vibe is also informed by the iconic 'red line' on the L (elevated train) system. I carefully interweave a slower middle section, anchored by a military-like drum cadence, to create a contemplative space that serves as a nod to minority veterans disproportionately affected by redlining, finding themselves entangled in the aftermath of discriminatory policies. Embedded within the music are quotes from the American spiritual 'This Train' and the patriotic hymn 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.' These act as stirring reminders of the immorality of redlining. Redlin[ing] is part of a series of works in my catalogue that are deliberate musical commentaries on social inequity—compositions intended to resonate with a narrative extending far beyond the confines of the concert hall. LIVE Performance at Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival | Landini Center for Performing and Fine Arts, Boyce Recital Hall | October 27, 2024
There is Always Light (for Clarinet, Bassoon, and Marimba)
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there is always light is a trio for clarinet, bassoon, and marimba, commissioned by clarinetist Erin Fung and bassoonist Christopher Sales, and is centered around the notion of racial justice. The creative process came at a time when Americans were witnessing a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and the commonplace tragic reality of fatal losses of unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police, most notably at this moment, George Floyd. This commission also comes after the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris where poet Amanda Gorman recited her poem, The Hill We Climb — the work by which there is always light was, in part, inspired. My musical response to Gorman's artistry that was displayed on January 20th, 2021 centered around themes of racial justice propelled by a beautiful and anticipated sense of hope that is to come, a central thread of her words, at least how I perceived them to be.
As I began composing this work, the trial of Derek Chauvin (the police officer who murdered George Floyd) began. The tragic killing by police of another unarmed black man, Daunte Wright, transpired, more sadly, in the same city as Floyd's premature demise less than a year prior. In my city of Chicago, a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by police. The Latino child's hands were raised. I confess: the hope I was determined to portray in this piece was diminishing quickly. Yet, I kept going back to the chorus of the Negro Spiritual, Gospel Plow:
Hold on
Hold on
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.
Reflecting on that spiritual, particularly the words "hold on," was inexplicably sustaining, instilling again a hope that was quickly fading. As such, I chose to abstractly include parts of the melody of Gospel Plow as an anthem of reassurance that I, in truth, needed affirmed to have the strength to complete this composition. The title of the work comes from one of my favorite lines of Gorman's poem:
For there is always light.
If only we're brave enough to see it.
If only we're brave enough to be it.
CROOKED SHANKS (For PIANO)
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"Crooked Shanks" is a work for solo piano commissioned by the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island. The commissioner wanted a piece that reflected the region. Not familiar with Rhode Island, I began researching various aspects of the state's and the city of Newport's history and came across a fascinating historical figure called Occramer Marycoo, an enslaved African who was ultimately sold to Caleb Garder in Newport, RI. Marycoo's was given the name Newport Gardner, after his involuntary home and his enslaver—a name he would keep. Gardner was remarkable because he became quite educated, spoke multiple languages, and became a trained classical musician and composer despite his enslavement. He is credited with being the first African American person to have a composition published in the Western-style. The work was called Crooked Shanks, a whistle-worthy happy tune. After decades of enslavement, he won the lottery, bought his freedom, and became a prosperous man. A beautiful bookend to his life, Gardner did something that relatively few enslaved Africans did: re-cross the Atlantic and return home to Africa, where, soon after, he would leave this Earth. This work is composed for Cuban pianist Aldo López-Gavilán and inspired by Gardner's tune, Crooked Shanks. This composition is also loosely influenced by African and Latin sensibilities, reflecting Garder's and my, and López-Gavilán's cultural heritage, respectively. In getting to know Gardener's journey, I kept gravitating to the notion of traveling, which, along with the perils of the enslaved, the hope of freedom, and the return home, is the extra-musical core of this work.
CryptOlogiE (FOR PIERROT)
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Everything I compose is about something—a response to, inspired by, a study in—not music for music's sake. CryptOlogiE, a quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, is selfishly about what I treasure most in life: my wife and two daughters. Cryptology is the study of codes, or the art of writing and solving them. Full of confidence, color, and coded messages, the source material for this work is a calculated serial pitch set of our birthdays [3, 2, 8, 11, 1, 7, 10, 9]; a Morse code rhythm [. ...- .- / --- -.- .--. . -... .... --- .-.. ---] that decodes my oldest daughter's name [EVA OKPEBHOLO]; and intentional repeated ostinato and recurring pitches of the first letters of my wife's and daughters' names (C, D, E). The mood of this work is a combination of their personalities: highly energetic, sweet, and methodical.
On a Poem by Miho Nonaka: Harvard Square (for unaccompanied flute)
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Winner of the 2016 Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition (solo flute division). This composition – inspired by Harvard Square, a poem by the Japanese poet, Miho Nonaka – is a work for solo flute, composed for and premiered by my friend, Caen Thomason-Redus. It was not my intention to, necessarily, text paint each word of the poem; rather, I tried to evoke the essence of the poem’s meaning. In one word, Nonaka describes her poem as being about ‘resonance.’ A natural term in the music world, the word ‘resonance’, figuratively speaking, can also mean evoking images, memories and emotions, which she beautifully achieves in Harvard Square. This composition is for the virtuoso flutist, utilizing various extended flute techniques. For example, the composition begins with the flute playing bamboo tones, a way for the modern western flute to, by using nontraditional fingerings (which I notated in the score), sound like a shakuhachi flute, a Japanese bamboo flute.
EXCURSIONS (for TROMBONE + Piano)
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mi sueño: afro-flamenco (for Solo Piano)
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mi sueño: afro-flamenco, a work for solo piano commissioned by pianist Clare Longendyke, is a part of a series of commissions inspired by Maurice Ravel's five-movement piano suite, Miroirs. My work is a musical response to Alborada del gracioso, the dynamic, virtuosic, Spanish-inspired fourth movement of Miroirs—qualities I reimagined in mi sueño: afro-flamenco. I composed this work during the 2020/2021 global pandemic, a challenging time for our world. The title means "my dream: afro-flamenco" which references my pre-pandemic nostalgia and post-pandemic dreams. It represents my longing to revisit Africa and relive my Nigerian musical heritage, to travel to Spain and once again savor the boundless artistry of flamenco performers, and to experience new places, cultures, and music. This piece is a musical dreamscape that infuses my musical language with African and African-American-inspired rhythms and sonorities, and flamenco musical styles. If you are familiar with Alborada del gracios, you will recognize my nod to the quick castanet-like repeated notes and the dyadic glissandi.
On a Painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner: THe Thankful Poor (For Unaccompanied Flute)
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Born in 1859, Henry Ossawa Tanner was perhaps the first African-American visual artist to achieve worldwide prominence, with paintings such as The Banjo Lesson (1893) and The Annunciation (1898). Tanner was primarily a realist painter, gifted in capturing light, color, and mood as he skillfully depicted people and places, often with religious and contemplative themes. From a composer's perspective, I believe his art naturally inspires music.
Tanner's 1894 painting, The Thankful Poor, serves as the basis for my composition. It portrays the reality of Black lower-class life, depicting an older man and a young boy, possibly a grandfather and his grandson, engaged in a meaningful conversation while sitting at a table. I envision this scene as a guarded intergenerational time of storytelling, wisdom-sharing, and question-asking, shedding light on Black life on the eve of the 20th century.
On a Painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner: The Thankful Poor is a composition for unaccompanied flute, representing my musical interpretation of that conversation—a cherished dialogue with shifting moods, including moments of reflection, excitement, weightiness, and soulfulness. It captures the essence of both sweet and thankful moments.
Distance (For Cello and Marimba)
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On November 13th, 2015, my colleague Roger Lundin passed away. This extraordinary individual was a distinguished professor of English, a consummate teacher, a respected scholar of American Literature and a friend—my friend. 'Distance,' for cello and marimba, is a work that I composed in remembrance of Roger and is inspired by the elegant and poignant poem, 'Distance,' an elegy for Roger penned by the gifted poet Miho Nonaka, also a colleague and good friend of Roger.
The choice of instrumentation was no accident. Both the cello and marimba are considered soft instruments but can be rich in timbre. That was Roger: a soft-spoken and humble man who had richness and depth in his speech, not just in tone, but also in substance. In this composition, I wanted to musically and cohesively evoke many ideas expressed in Nonaka’s poem: the body, devotion, music and faith, joy (imagery of the flies), space, breath, and words.
This work includes two musical quotations: the spiritual 'Prepare Me One Body' and the hymn 'For All the Saints' (Ralph Vaughan William's tune, Sine Nomine). I decided to quote these works because they were some of Roger’s favorite songs, and it was important to me that I honor him that way.
X (For Percussion QUartet)
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In this work, I aimed to musically evoke the hustle and bustle of mid-19th-century London, driven, in part, by the industrial revolution, including the darker side of that era: drunkenness, hopelessness, and despair. This composition is rhythmically complex and sonically harsh. As the piece progresses, the beautiful hymn "Christ is All," penned around that time and which served as inspiration for this piece, gradually emerges and ultimately takes over—serene and peaceful—conveying the sacred notion that while we live in a world full of darkness, it's Divine love and grace that offer hope and peace.