ABOUT SHAWN

GRAMMY®-nominated for his latest solo album Lord, How Come Me Here? — a collection of reimagined Negro spirituals—and named one of the 2023 Musical America Top 30 Professionals of the Year, Nigerian-American composer Shawn E. Okpebholo's music resonates globally, earning widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. The Washington Post has described his works as "fresh and new and fearless," as well as "devastatingly beautiful," while The Guardian (UK) has praised his music as "lyrical, complex, singular."

Okpebholo's artistry has garnered numerous accolades, including awards from The Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Prize in Composition, Chamber Music America, and the Barlow Endowment for the Arts. Some notable commissions include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, United States Air Force Strings, Copland House Ensemble, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Newport Classical Music Festivals, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Imani Winds, Sparks and Wiry Cries, Urban Arias, and the Kennedy Center. Okpebholo has collaborated with today's leading artists and ensembles such as Rhiannon Giddens, Lawrence Brownlee, J'Nai Bridges, Will Liverman, Karen Slack, eighth blackbird, Nois, Picosa, and the Cincinnati and Houston Symphony Orchestras. 

His extensive artistic reach has led to regular performances at prestigious venues like Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, Lincoln, Kennedy, and Kimmel Centers, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His music has also been featured at prominent music festivals and concert series, including the Aspen, Ojai, Ravinia, and Bowdoin International Music Festivals, the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie, and the Oxford International Song Festival.

PBS Newshour and national radio broadcasts, including NPR's Tiny Desk, All Things Considered, Performance Today, and Morning Edition, and SiriusXM's Living American series, have highlighted Okpebholo's music. NPR selected his art song "The Rain" as one of the 100 Best Songs of 2021, with only a handful of classical works making the ranking. His compositions have been featured on twelve commercially released albums, three of which are GRAMMY®-nominated.

Okpebholo earned his doctoral degree in composition from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. Recently, he completed a residency with the Chicago Opera Theater, culminating in the premiere of his opera, The Cook-Off, with librettist Mark Campbell (librettist of the Pulitzer-prize-winning opera Silent Night). Currently, he serves as the Jonathan Blanchard Distinguished Professor of Composition at Wheaton College-Conservatory of Music and the Saykaly Garbulinska Composer-in-Residence with the Lexington Philharmonic. 

To delve deeper into Okpebholo's story, please visit shawnokpebholo.com.

During the the 2023 - 2024 season, LexPhil is excited to reignite and reimagine the Saykaly Garbulinska Composer-in-Residence program through the sixth composer appointment of Lexington-born composer Shawn E. Okpebholo. Shawn’s works are included on multiple programs throughout the season and culminates in the LexPhil co-commissioned world premiere of his newly arranged orchestral work, Two Black Churches in May 2024.

Past Saykayly Garbulinska Composers-in-Residence
2011 - 2012: Daniel Kellogg - How Radiant the Dawn 
2013 - 2014: Adam Schoenberg - Canto
2015 - 2016: Avner Dorman - After Brahms
2017 - 2018: Chris Brubeck - No Borders: Concerto for Canadian Brass and Orchestra *
2021 - 2022: Duke Ellington arr. Marc Bolin - Queenie Pie Suite (commissioned arrangement)

*Featured on NPR’s Performance Today