Nkeiru Okoye
About Nkeiru Okoye
Creator During the 2023-2024 Season
American composer and lyricist Nkeiru Okoye has been hailed as “gripping” and “evocative” by the New York Times. Okoye won The American Prize in vocal chamber music for her song cycle, We Met At the Symphony. She is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2021-23 Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow. In 2020, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra appointed her Composer-in-Residence for their “Classical Roots Festival,” featuring her work, Black Bottom.
Okoye’s music has been commissioned, performed, and presented by orchestras and opera houses throughout North America and Europe. Okoye believes in engaging communities through her music. She is a mentor composer for the National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Initiative and the American Opera Project, Composers, and the Voice program. Her music is published exclusively through Theodore Presser.
Projects
Cocktails, Cookies, and the Composer
Cocktails, Cookies, and the Composer is an interactive mix of recital, narrative, and music appreciation in an adult-friendly setting. I've been speaking and sharing my music with audiences of all ages throughout my career and thought it would be fun to offer something for adults, appropriate for date night, a girls' night out, or just something different.
This series brings back traditions from centuries ago. Composers like Beethoven or Mozart would be invited to a salon at a patron's house to talk about the music, which was new at the time, and whoever was attending could be one of the first to hear a performance.
"I wanted to introduce people of all backgrounds to concert music and music of Black composers, possibly introduce light opera in an intimate setting," says composer Nkeiru Okoye. "And sometimes, to get them there, it helps to have cookies and mixed drinks."
Performances
All Performances
- Friday, October 13, 2023 | Coffee: Lasting Legacies | Whitney Hall | Voices Shouting Out
- Friday, October 13, 2023 | NightLights: Lasting Legacies | Ogle Center (New Albany, IN) | Voices Shouting Out
- Saturday, October 14, 2023 | Classics: Lasting Legacies | Whitney Hall | Voices Shouting Out
- Saturday, January 13, 2024 | Classics: Together in Song | Whitney Hall | “I Am Moses, the Liberator” from Songs of Harriet Tubman
- Sunday, January 14, 2024 | Special: Together in Song | St. Stephen Church | “I Am Moses, the Liberator” from Songs of Harriet Tubman
- Thursday, January 18, 2024 | Cocktails, Cookies, and the Composer | The Omni Hotel Library Bar | Movements, We Met at the Symphony
- Thursday, February 8, 2024 | Music Without Borders: Rhythm and Song | The Jeffersonian | Voices Shouting Out
- Friday, February 9, 2024 | Music Without Borders: Rhythm and Song | St. Vincent De Paul Family Success Center | Voices Shouting Out
- Saturday, February 10, 2024 | Music Without Borders: Rhythm and Song | California Community Center | Voices Shouting Out
- Thursday, March 7, 2024 | Cocktails, Cookies, and the Composer | Dasha Barbour’s Southern Bistro | Movements, 600 Sq. Ft.
- Friday, May 10, 2024 | Coffee: Creators Fest | Whitney Hall | Passing By the River
- Friday, May 10, 2024| Cocktails, Cookies, and the Composer | The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts | We Met at the Symphony, 600 Sq. Ft.
- Saturday, May 11, 2024 | Classics: Creators Fest | Whitney Hall | Passing By the River
