Shawn Okpebholo
Composer

Shawn E. Okpebholo is a GRAMMY®-nominated, critically-acclaimed and award-winning composer whose music has been described as “devastatingly beautiful” and “fresh and new and fearless” (The Washington Post), “affecting” (The New York Times), “searing” (The Chicago Tribune), “staggering” (The New Yorker), “lyrical, complex, singular” (The Guardian) and “powerful” (BBC Music Magazine). Some honors include The Academy of Arts and Letters Walter Hinrichsen Award, 2022 Winner of Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, First Place Winner of the 2020 American Prize in Composition (professional/wind band division), Second Place Winner in the 2017 American Prize in Composition (professional/orchestral division), First Prize Winner in the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition and the Inaugural Awardee of the Leslie Adams-Robert Owens Composition Award. Okpebholo’s music has been featured in recital and concert series in nearly every state in America and all over the world, including Aspen Music Festival; Bowdoin International Music Festival; Newport New Music Festival; concerts presented by Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Urban Arias, Portland Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater; Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Now Series; Cincinnati and Houston Symphony Orchestras; Unites States Airfare Strings, among others.

Okpebholo’s work as a composer and his music has been featured on PBS Newshour, and radio broadcasts across the country, including NPR’s All Things Considered, NPR’s Morning Edition SiriusXM’s “Living American” series on Symphony Hall Channel, and Chicago’s WFMT. And NPR selected his art song The Rainas one of the 100 Best Songs of 2021; only a few classical works to made the ranking. His artistry has resulted in many prizes and honors, including The Academy of Arts and Letters Walter Hinrichsen Award, 2022 Winner of Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, First Place Winner of the 2020 American Prize in Composition (professional/wind band division), Second Place Winner in the 2017 American Prize in Composition (professional/orchestral division), First Prize Winner in the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition and the Inaugural Awardee of the Leslie Adams-Robert Owens Composition Award.

Okpebholo’s music has been featured in recital and concert series in nearly every state in America and all over the world, including Aspen Music Festival; Bowdoin International Music Festival; Newport New Music Festival; Monte Music Festival (Goa, India); MusicX Contemporary Music Festival; The Uncommon Music Festival (Alaska); concerts presented by Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Urban Arias, Portland Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater; Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Now Series; Cincinnati and Houston Symphony Orchestras; Unites States Air Force Strings; Urban Arias and the Inscape Chamber Orchestra; Copland House Ensemble, Picosa, Fifth House Ensemble, Lincoln Trio, among others. Some solo artists include vocalists J’Nai Bridges, Will Liverman, Michael Michael Mayes, Ryan McKinney, Robert Sims, and Tamera Wilson; pianists Paul Sánchez, Mark Markham, Craig Terry, and Robert Ainsley; euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead, flutists Jennie Oh Brown and Caen-Thomason-Redus.

Okpebholo regularly receives commissions from noted soloists, universities, and organizations, including the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Astral Artists, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, International Tuba and Euphonium Association, The Meir Rimon Commissioning Program of the International Horn Society, among others. His compositions have been featured on six commercially released albums, including his first album solely devoted to his music, Steal Away, a collection of re-imagined Negro spirituals, and his second solo album, GRAMMY®-nominated Lord, How Come Me Here?.

As a pedagogue, Okpebholo has given masterclasses at many academic institutions worldwide, including two universities in Nigeria, and has served on the faculty of summer music festivals, currently on the Fresh Inc Festival’s composition faculty. His compositional and research interests have been a gateway for ethnomusicological fieldwork in both East and West Africa. He has studied the music of the Esan people in southern Nigeria, the Akambe people in the Machakos region of Kenya, and South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda. His field research has resulted in two chamber works, two symphonic works, transcriptions, and academic lectures. Grants from the Endowment of the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, Tangemen Sacred Music Center, Wheaton College, and Pew Research Grant (Union University) have supported his work.

He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati, where he also studied music theory. He completed a bachelor’s degree in composition and music history from Asbury College. He had additional studies in film scoring from New York University through the Buddy Baker Film Scoring Program. Growing up, a significant part of his music education was through The Salvation Army church, where he regularly received free music lessons. Inspired by that charity, Okpebholo is passionate about offering his musical expertise to underserved communities. Currently, he is Jonathan Blanchard Professor of Music Composition and Theory at Wheaton College-Conservatory of Music (IL), having also taught at Union University (TN), Northern Kentucky University, and CCM. He served as also the Composer-in-Residence of the renowned Fifth House Ensemble. And he is currently in residence with the Chicago Opera Theater (2021-2023 seasons), culminating with an opera commission with librettist Mark Campbell, librettist for the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night.

He lives in Wheaton, IL, a suburb of Chicago, with his wife, violist Dorthy, and his daughters, Eva and Corinne.