Oklahoma Stories – Clara Luper Centennial

“Since my arrival in Oklahoma City I made it a point to tell Oklahoma Stories. We commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing with two original compositions. And we celebrated the opening of the First Americans Museum with music of Native American composers and artists. This coming May will be the 100th birthday of Civil Rights activist Clara Luper. Her leadership in 6 years of successful carefully planned nonviolent sit-in protests of downtown drugstore lunch counters overturned their policies of segregation. To celebrate her life, courage, vision and activism the Oklahoma City Philharmonic commissioned jazz trumpeter and composer Hannibal Lokumbe to write a work for orchestra, chorus and narrator.

 

Hannibal himself has an international career. His music has been performed by the Detroit Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, etc. The first half will celebrate two other American composer, Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. America will always be a melting pot. That’s why, no matter what, here in America and everywhere else for that matter, music will always be the most creative and fun language to unite and transcend.”