|
Project
| HARRIET TUBMAN: WHEN I CROSSED THAT LINE TO FREEDOM |
| Music and libretto by Nkeiru Okoye |
|
“Okoye’s [Harriet Tubman] is an ensemble of achingly beautiful arias, duets, trios and choruses that recount the major episodes in Tubman’s career...” - The Baltimore Sun
Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom is a two act theatrical work that tells of how a young girl born in slavery, becomes Harriet Tubman, the legendary Underground Railroad conductor. Based on recent Tubman biographies, the story is narrated and told in the context of Tubman’s tight-knit family of lively characters. Harriet Tubman carries the universal themes of sisterhood, courage, sacrifice and doing what is necessary to keep a family together. Moreover it is a heartwarming tale of two sisters vowing that nothing but death will separate them, despite the slavery threatening to tear them apart.
The opera is written for 5 lead roles (soprano, soubrette, contralto, tenor, bass-baritone) and will include 5-10 chorus/supporting roles, depending on how the work develops. The work is also being simultaneously conceived and orchestrated in a reduced touring version ideal for performances in a variety of educational and municipal venues.
Supported through a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works. www.arts.gov
|
Back to top |
|
 NKEIRU OKOYE
(composer/librettist)
A native New Yorker of African American and Nigerian descent, Nkeiru Okoye has had her music performed on four continents. Okoye’s penchant for infusing popular and non-Western influences in a ‘classical’ framework shows in her most performed works, SONGS OF HARRIET TUBMAN (2007), PHILLIS WHEATLEY (2005, commissioned by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and recorded by the Moscow Symphony), VOICES SHOUTING OUT (2002); RUTH: an Orchestral Choreopoem, (1998); THE GENESIS (1997) and AFRICAN SKETCHES. Okoye’s orchestral works have been performed by the Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Virginia, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Mississippi, Richmond, New Jersey Chamber, Cambridge Symphony, Western Piedmont, Rutgers University, Central Jersey, Hopkins, and New Horizons Symphony orchestras, amongst others. Okoye has gotten awards, commissions and commendations from MEET THE COMPOSER, MetLife Creative Connections, John Duffy Composer Institute, Composer’s Collaborative, Inc., Yvar Mikhashov Trust for New Music (1999); and numerous awards by the NAACP. Okoye is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist. In 2005, Okoye was a composer mentor at the University of Ghana for the International Society of Contemporary Music’s World New Music Days. In 2006, she was named a British American Project Fellow. In 2007, Okoye was honored at Nigeria’s 40under40 ceremony, in Lagos. Nkeiru Okoye (in KEAR roo oh KOY yeh) has BM in composition from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and an MA and a Ph.D. in theory and composition from Rutgers University. In addition to being a composer, Dr. Okoye is a soft sculpture artist/creator of the “Canbie Collection” of multicultural dolls, which may be found in museums and galleries nationwide, most notably the Smithsonian. www.nkeiruokoye.com
|
| Back to top |
|
February 7, 2013 - NEW PALTZ ORACLE
Opera profile: "Rediscovering the Underground Railroad"
January 27, 2013 - ALMANAC WEEKLY
Opera profile: "SUNY New Paltz Professor to
Premiere New Opera About Harriet Tubman"
January 17, 2013 - MARYLAND.NEWSZAP.COM
Opera profile: "The year of Harriet Tubman has begun"
December 27, 2012 - CHRONOGRAM
Opera profile: "SUNY New Paltz Professor Gets Grant for Harriet Tubman Opera"
January 27, 2012 - THE NEW YORK TIMES
Opera profile: "Songs, Some Coded, of Liberation"
February 3, 2008 - THE BALTIMORE SUN
Opera profile: "Tubman's Story of Bravery Set to Music" |
| Back to top |
|
March 8, 2013
Abridged version of the opera by Nkeiru Okoye
Presented by SUNY Albany's Department of Women's Studies and AOP First Chance
Harriet Tubman: A Legacy of Resistance: 100th Anniversary Symposium and Celebration
Performance Arts Center Recital Hall, University at Albany, SUNY
Performances by Sumayya Ali (Harriet Tubman), Sequina Dubose (Rachel), Clinton Ingram (Ben), Damian Norfleet (John)
Stage Direction: Beth Greenberg
Conductor: Damien Sneed
Mila Henry Piano / Hilary Cumming Violin I / Hikaru Inuzuka Violin II / Natalie Wallace Viola / Olga Neroni Cello / Christopher Neubert Bass
Dec. 28, 2012
Scenes from the opera HARRIET TUBMAN by Nkeiru Okoye
Rosetta Gaston Senior Center, Brooklyn, NY
Performances by Sumayya Ali and Briana Hunter
Piano: Mila Henry
Stage Direction: Beth Greenberg
Dec. 27, 2012
Scenes from the opera HARRIET TUBMAN by Nkeiru Okoye
Part of the Brooklyn Public Library's Annual Free Kwanzaa program
Stevan Dweck Auditorium, Brooklyn Public Library
10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Performances by Sumayya Ali and Briana Hunter
Piano: Mila Henry
Stage Direction: Beth Greenberg
March 22, 2012
Songs of Harriet Tubman (Excerpts) by Nkeiru Okoye
Reception for Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
Home of Martin and Ruth Goldstein - Brooklyn, NY
Performance by Jasmine Muhammad
Piano: Mila Henry
March 8, 2012
Songs of Harriet Tubman (Excerpts) by Nkeiru Okoye
AOP Board Meeting, Home of Martin and Ruth Goldstein - Brooklyn, NY
Performance by Jasmine Muhammad
Piano: Mila Henry
March 7, 2012
Songs of Harriet Tubman (Excerpts) by Nkeiru Okoye
Ingersoll Community Center - 177 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11201
Performance by Jasmine Muhammad
Piano: Mila Henry
Monday, June 21, 2011
Song cycle from the opera HARRIET TUBMAN by Nkeiru Okoye
Part of Make Music New York 2011 – “The Voice of Brooklyn”
Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn, NY
PERFORMANCES BY: Jasmine Muhammad (Harriet Tubman), Jennifer Axelson (violin 1), Molly Fletcher (violin 2), Brian Thompson (viola), Alice Hamlet (cello), Morton Cahn (contrabass), Mila Henry (piano)
MUSIC DIRECTION: Eli Spindel
STAGE DIRECTION: Beth Greenberg
Sunday, June 20, 2011
Song cycle from the opera HARRIET TUBMAN by Nkeiru Okoye
Presented by American Opera Projects and Angeli Rasbury
Juneteenth Celebration
Dweck Center, Brooklyn Public Library
Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY
Harriet Tubman: Jasmine Muhammed
Conductor: Eli Spindel
violin: Jennifer Axelson / violin II: Molly Fletcher
viola: Brian Thompson / cello: Alice Hamlet
contrabass: Morton Cahn / piano: Mila Henry
Directed by Beth Greenberg
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Song cycle from the opera HARRIET TUBMAN by Nkeiru Okoye
Presented by American Opera Projects
Opera Grows In Brooklyn: Opera of Color
Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY
Harriet Tubman: Jasmine Muhammed
Conductor: Eli Spindel
violin: Jennifer Axelson / violin II: Molly Fletcher
viola: Brian Thompson / cello: Alice Hamlet
contrabass: Morton Cahn / piano: Mila Henry
Directed by Beth Greenberg |
|
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Concert Staged Reading of Act I of HARRIET TUBMAN: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom
Presented by Downtown Music Productions
St. Mark’s in the Bowery, 131 E. 10th St., New York, NY 10003
Performances by Diana Solomon Glover (Harriet Tubman), Linda Thompson Williams (Rittia), Karla Simmons (Rachel), Damian Norfleet (John Tubman), Charles Samuel Brown (Ben), Kyra Hairston (Young Harriet), David Gordon (Edward Brodess), Yolanda Johnson, Patrice Eaton, Lumumba Seegars, Kenneth Alston, Jorell Williams
MUSIC DIRECTION: Mimi Stern-Wolfe
STAGE DIRECTION: Beth Greenberg
PIANO: Mila Henry |
| Back to top |
|
|
|
