Named Chicagoan of the Year in Classical Music (Chicago Tribune, 2024) and one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of 2023, Nigerian-American composer Shawn E. Okpebholo is a defining voice in contemporary classical music. His GRAMMY®- nominated album Lord, How Come Me Here? reimagines Negro spirituals and American folk hymns, while his latest release, Songs in Flight, is already earning critical acclaim. Hailed as “devastatingly beautiful” (The Washington Post), “affecting” (The New York Times), and “lyrical, complex, singular” (The Guardian), his music resonates worldwide.
Okpebholo has been a laureate of many honors, including two Academy of Arts and Letters awards, the American Prize, and ASCAP, with support also from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Barlow Endowment, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Mellon Foundation.
Commissioned by major ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the United States Air Force Strings, and Copland House Ensemble, and featured at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, and Newport Classical, his music has been performed by leading groups like Imani Winds, Eighth Blackbird, and WindSync, as well as the orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Oakland, Houston, and Lexington.
His collaborations span some of today’s most celebrated artists, including Rhiannon Giddens, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Karen Slack, and Will Liverman. His music has resounded in leading performance venues, including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Concertgebouw, and has been featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and SiriusXM. NPR also recognized his art song “The Rain” among the 100 Best Songs of 2021.
A dedicated educator, Okpebholo is the Jonathan Blanchard Distinguished Professor of Composition at Wheaton College and recently completed his residency as the Saykaly Garbulinska Composer-in-Residence with the Lexington Philharmonic.