“Let your mind roam across 250 years of Charlotte-Mecklenburg history, and what do you hear? Maybe ‘Tulochgorum,’ a fiddle tune from our Scots-Irish heritage? Perhaps the ceaseless clacking of a mill?” writes Lawrence Toppman in Friday’s (9/14) Charlotte Observer (N.C.). “Nkeiru Okoye tuned into those things, too. She also heard the Angolan music of slaves brought here long ago, songs sung by Latino immigrants who have more recently arrived and cries of protest from people who feel unheard in the least upwardly mobile of America’s big cities.” Okoye, a New York-based composer, “wove them into a dense, 12-minute tapestry titled ‘Charlotte Mecklenburg,’ which gets its world premiere Sept. 21 in the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s opening concert…. The CSO commissioned it for the 250th anniversary of [Charlotte’s] founding…. President and CEO Mary Deissler wanted [a composer] who could make the season reflect a little more of Charlotte’s diversity…. [Okoye] gave herself a crash course in history in June…. Okoye heard about racial and economic disharmony.” Charlotte-based hip-hop musician-producer Dae-Lee, who spoke with Okoye in June, recalls telling her about ‘the divisions we have here. Our conversation was, “This is the reality, but there’s hope in that.’ ”
Posted September 18, 2018
