Nkeiru Okoye
Biographical Information
Introduction:
Nkeiru Okoye is a composer with a reputation that spans across North America and around the world. Her symphonic works have been performed by some of the world’s greatest orchestras like the Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony. And her many award-winning operas have been performed by renowned institutions like the Opera North UK, Houston Grand Opera, and Royal Opera House. She has also won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, and she has taught at universities all over the country. Okoye has a distinctive musical style. She combines influences from blues, gospel, and classical music. For example, in one of her operas, Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line in to Freedom, the protagonist sings an aria with blues and gospel techniques with classical orchestration. Okoye often explores topics that she is deeply passionate about in her music. For example, the previous opera follows the life of Harriett Tubman on her expeditions to free slaves and search for her sister in the Antebellum South. Okoye’s orchestral work, Invitation to a Die In, is dedicated to Trayvon Martin and other victims of police violence. And Okoye has also written a work in the style of Peter and the Wolf for narrator and orchestra called The Journey of Philis Wheatley. In this work, Okoye explores the life of the the first published African-American poet, Philis Wheatley, who published her first book in 1773. Nkeiru Okoye’s talent, gripping musical voice, and her music’s unique connections with African-American history/contemporary topics have contributed to her success as a composer. However, throughout her musical journey she has struggled with many individuals and institutions that have underestimated her abilities and who did not see her full potential.
Early Life:
Nkeiru Okoye was born in New York City in 1972. Her mother was an African-American woman and her father was a Nigerian man from the Igbo ethnic group in Africa. The young Okoye would spend her childhood traveling back and forth between New York City and Nigeria. She was raised in a nurturing household. But it was not a very artistic place. Okoye’s mother was a therapist, and her father was an electrical engineer. Both of her parents were highly skilled professionals, but no one in her family was a musician. Unlike her parents, Okoye always had musical tendencies, even when she was a child. When she was little, Nkeiru remembered hearing music inside of her head. In one interview, Okoye would say, “they have those children's books like Peter Rabbit. Peter would open the window and he'd open the door and would sing his morning song…so I'm sitting here singing the morning song because I'm hearing the music. And I have no idea that most people don't do that.” Okoye was inspired by the music in her head, and she would start to experiment with the only instrument in her house, a small little organ. Her parents started taking her to a local piano teacher when she was 8 years old. Okoye excelled in her studies, and after two short years, she was ready for a new teacher. She would start studying with Celia Bowers, a celesta player with the Metropolitan Opera. Mrs. Bowers saw great potential, and encouraged Okoye to audition for a musical prep school in New York City. She passed the audition and enrolled. However, the teacher that she was hoping to study with was no longer available. Instead, Okoye was placed with a younger teacher, a white man who convinced her that she had no future as a pianist. These lessons were a traumatic experience, but years after the fact she has recognized them as a turning point in her musical journey. In one interview, she said, “People who see me now would think that, OK, this is where I tell them off. Yeah, totally not. God bless this man, because all of a sudden, I'm very aware of this music that's in my head… So I thought, I need to write this down. This is going to be my last thing that I do in music. It's my requiem.” Now she was determined to become a composer.
Okoye would bring her musical ideas to her band teacher, Mr. Collins. When he heard her talking about the music in her head, he realized that she was talking about composing music. He taught her how to write down the music in her head, and encouraged her to enter her composition into a competition for young Black composers, sponsored by the NAACP. Okoye felt like an underdog compared to the older, well-known contestants in the competition. She entered a newly composed piece called Phase II. She named it Phase II because in her mind it was the beginning of a new phase of her musical life. Ultimately, this competition would be a major starting point for her career as a composer. Okoye won this competition in what must have seemed like a stunning upset for the usual contestants.
Career:
After High School, Okoye would attend the Oberlin College and Conservatory, the oldest continuously operating musical conservatory in the United States. However, she described her experience at Oberlin as disheartening and isolating. Yet again, she was overlooked and dismissed despite the fact that she was a talented composer with numerous accolades. During her second year, the composition department sent her a letter saying “that she was not thriving.” They insinuated that composing was not the right path for her, and that she always had the option to leave. Instead, Okoye persevered to the end of her degree. After graduation, she would go to Rutgers University to pursue a PhD where she would study with the famous Afro-Carribean composer, Noel DaCosta. She would thrive in this learning environment and DaCosta would encourage her to write music that felt authentic to herself. He also encouraged Okoye to study the music of other Black composers, and she found that her outlook was transformed by studying composers that looked like her. Okoye would win Rutger’s composition competition, and she was able to hear her music performed by an orchestra for the first time. This was only the first of many orchestras that would end up performing her music over the next few decades.
Today, Nkeiru Okoye is a very successful composer. She has composed symphonies, tone poems, and operas that have been performed all over the world. And her music has been performed by renowned ensembles like the Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Opera North UK, Houston Grand Opera, the American Opera Project, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Cleveland Opera Theater, Moscow Symphony, Tanglewood Music Festival, Virginia Symphony, Tulsa Opera, Royal Opera House, and Da Capo Chamber Players; to name a few. She has also been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for one of her newly developed operas, A Truth Before Their Eyes. Okoye has been the recipient of the first International Florence Price Society award for composition, a Beneva Foundation Award, and awards from the National Endowment of the Arts. In addition to her work as a composer, she also had a career as both an educator and a conductor. She has been a professor at Norfolk State University, Morgan State University and SUNY New Paltz. She is also an Artistic Chair for the American Opera Project’s Composers and Voice program, a mentor for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) mentoring program for Composers, and a Board member of Composers Now. She was also in the first group of William Grant Still Fellows for the 2021 Medomak Conductor’s Institute.
Resources:
Ms. Magazine Interview, Nkeiru Okoye:
https://msmagazine.com/2022/02/16/harriet-tubman-opera-music-composer-nkeiru-okoye/
Charlotte Symphony Article:
https://www.charlottesymphony.org/blog/nkeiru-okoye-composing-charlotte-mecklenburg/
BLAC Inverview/Article:
https://www.blac.media/people-places/composer-nkeiru-okoye-talks-her-new-black-bottom-arrangement/
Kiddle, Fun Facts for Kids:
https://kids.kiddle.co/Nkeiru_Okoye
Frosted Lens Interview:
https://frostedlens.com/musicians-vs-the-world/f/my-name-is-nkeiru-okoye
