Masterworks: A Time for Jubilee
Masterworks III: A Time for Jubilee
Monday, February 9 at 7pm
Troy University’s Davis Theatre for Performing Arts
Celebrate a powerful evening of American music with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra as we present the world premiere of A Time for Jubilee by Nkeiru Okoye, a new MSO-commissioned work honoring the spirit of resilience and freedom. The program also features Adolphus Hailstork’s vibrant American Port of Call and Aaron Copland’s heartfelt The Tender Land Suite, capturing the hope and beauty of the American landscape.
Hailstork – American Port of Call
Copland – The Tender Land Suite
Okoye – “Beatitudes” from When the Caged Bird Sings
Okoye – A Time for Jubilee (MSO Commission World Premiere)
Laquita Mitchell, soprano
This project has been made possible by grants from Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
2025 Commission and Composer-in-Residence
This commissioning project and residency is part of a larger initiative, the Alabama Composers Project, launched by the MSO in 2024. The goal of the Alabama Composers Project is to commission one new work per season by composers who are from Alabama, or whose work is strongly influenced by Alabama history and culture.
March 2025 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, a series of events that were seminal to the civil rights movement and a cornerstone in the history of our state. The Montgomery Symphony Orchestra has commissioned Dr. Nkeiru Okoye to compose a twenty minute work for full symphony orchestra and choir to commemorate this pivotal moment in Alabama and United States history. The text for the piece will also be written by the composer, drawing inspiration from iconic people and places in the Selma to Montgomery marches.
Meet Nkeiru Okoye
Dr. Nkeiru Okoye is serving as Montgomery Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural William L. Dawson Composer-in-Residence.
American composer and lyricist Nkeiru Okoye has been hailed as “gripping” and “evocative” by the New York Times. In 2020, the Detroit Symphony named her Composer-in-Residence for their Classical Roots Festival, featuring her work Black Bottom. In 2023-2024, Nkeiru Okoye was “Creator in Residence” for the Louisville Orchestra’s Creator Corps. Her works have been commissioned and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Juilliard School, Baltimore Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Tanglewood Music
Watch Nkeiru Okoye discuss When the Caged Bird Sings.
Meet Laquita Mitchell
Soprano Laquita Mitchell consistently earns acclaim in eminent opera companies throughout North America and Europe. Already in her young career, she has led performances with the Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Opéra Comique in Paris, among many others.
Soprano Laquita Mitchell begins the 2023-2024 season at the New Orleans Opera, where she will sing the role of the Countessa in Mozart’s masterpiece Le Nozze Di Figaro, in a new production by Chas Rader- Shieber. Ms. Mitchell is pleased to be apart of the 150th Season Anniversary opening night of the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, where she will be the soprano soloist for Bach: Magnificat and Mozart Requiem.
A humanitarian at heart, Ms. Mitchell will take part in concerts and master classes in the island of Jamaica, bringing classical music to the University of the West Indies. Ms. Mitchell will begin the new year starring in a newly staged production of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s Sanctuary Road for the Virginia Opera. She will reprise the soprano role in Sanctuary Road with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park and Princeton Pro Musica. Ms. Mitchell will debut in the Concert Series at St. Thomas Church in New York City performing the rarely heard Poulenc: Stabat Mater. She will be the soprano soloist for Beethoven: Symphony No.9 with the Chattanooga Symphony and will finish her season singing the beautiful soprano solo in Mahler Symphony No. 4 with the Waterbury Symphony.
Learn more about Laquita Mitchell here.
Watch Laquita Mitchell perform “Ah forse lui” from Verdi’s La Traviata.