GRAMMY®-nominated for his latest solo album “Lord, How Come Me Here?”—a collection of reimagined Negro spirituals—and named one of the 2023 Musical America Top 30 Professionals of the Year, Nigerian-American composer Shawn E. Okpebholo’s music resonates globally, earning widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. The press has described his music as “devastatingly beautiful” and “fresh and new and fearless” (Washington Post), “affecting” (New York Times), “lyrical, complex, singular” (The Guardian), “searing” (Chicago Tribune), “dreamy, sensual” (Boston Globe), and “powerful” (BBC Music Magazine). Okpebholo has garnered numerous accolades, including awards from The Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Prize in Composition, the Music Publishers Association, ASCAP, and was awarded the Inaugural honoree of the Leslie Adams-Robert Owens Composition Award.

Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, Barlow Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, Tangeman Sacred Music Center, The Mellon Foundation, Wheaton College, and many others have supported the work of Okpebholo. Some notable commissions include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, United States Air Force Strings, Copland House Ensemble, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Newport Classical Music Festivals, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Imani Winds, Sparks and Wiry Cries, Urban Arias, and the Kennedy Center. His art songs have been presented in concert by the Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Portland Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. His chamber music has been performed by eighth blackbird, Copland House Ensemble, Picosa, Fifth House Ensemble, Lincoln Trio, and others. Orchestras including the Chicago, Cincinnati, and Houston Symphonies and the Lexington Philharmonic have featured his music. Okpebholo has also collaborated with renowned solo artists including vocalists J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Rhiannon Giddens, Will Liverman, Michael Michael Mayes, Ryan McKinney, and Tamera Wilson; pianists Aldo-López Gavilán, Mark Markham, Paul Sánchez, and Howard Watkins; and instrumentalists including Rachel Barton Pine, Steven Mead, and Adam Walker. His extensive artistic reach has led to regular performances at prestigious venues like Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, Lincoln, Kennedy, and Kimmel Centers, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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 have highlighted Okpebholo’s music. NPR selected his art song “The Rain” as one of the 100 Best Songs of 2021, with only a handful of classical works making the ranking. His compositions are featured on twelve commercially released albums, three of which are GRAMMY®-nominated.

As a pedagogue, Okpebholo has conducted masterclasses at various academic institutions worldwide, including two universities in Nigeria. His research interests have led to ethnomusicological fieldwork in both East and West Africa, resulting in compositions, transcriptions, and academic lectures. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati. During his upbringing, a significant part of his music education came from The Salvation Army church, where he received free music lessons regularly. Inspired by that altruism, Okpebholo is deeply passionate about music outreach to underserved communities.

Recently, he completed a residency with the Chicago Opera Theater, culminating in the premiere of his opera, “The Cook-Off,” with librettist Mark Campbell (librettist of the Pulitzer-prize-winning opera Silent Night). Currently, he serves as the Jonathan Blanchard Distinguished Professor of Composition at Wheaton College-Conservatory of Music and the Saykaly Garbulinska Composer-in-Residence with the Lexington Philharmonic.

Shawn E. Okpebholo is based in Wheaton, IL, a suburb of Chicago, with his wife, violist Dorthy, and their daughters, Eva and Corinne.

Choral conductor, singer and music educator from the Dominican Republic, Magdalena Delgado currently serves as the conductor of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Choir as well as school programs at the Chicago Children’s Choir. 

Prior to her move to Chicago, Magdalena served as Artistic Director of the children and youth choir, Voces del Mar, based in Veracruz, Mexico, and was the Founder and Artistic Director of Audimus, a professional chamber ensemble based in Xalapa, Mexico. While in Mexico, she also worked as an adjunct faculty member on the choral and voice faculties of Instituto Superior de Música Esperanza Azteca and the Centro de Estudios de Jazz of the Universidad Veracruzana (JazzUV), where she taught voice and voice techniques classes, courses in choral literature and conducted the preparatory vocal jazz ensemble. 

In 2014, Magdalena earned her Master of Music in Choral Conducting, with distinction, from Westminster Choir College where she studied with Drs. Joe Miller, James Jordan and Amanda Quist. During her master’s studies, she served as Assistant Conductor of the Westminster Chapel Choir, was an integral member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir and served as a section leader for the world-renown Westminster Choir. While at Westminster, she performed on tours throughout the U.S., and alongside some of the greatest orchestras in the world under the direction of conductors of the highest stature. 

Prior to her master’s studies, Magdalena studied vocal performance at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and has served as a guest conductor for choirs of all ages throughout the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Magdalena received her bachelor’s degree in music education from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo where she graduated magna cum laude. 

As a native of Santo Domingo, Magdalena began her musical study at age five where she studied piano, recorder and most importantly was a member of the children’s choir at her area music school, which served as her initial inspiration for her career path.

Sarah E. Wheeler enjoys collaborating in musical theater, vocal, choral, and instrumental music. She currently serves as a staff pianist at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, accompanies area choirs and theater, and freelances in the Fox Valley. She is also a certified pharmacy technician. 

Sarah has held staff positions at Boston Ballet School, Interlochen Arts Camp, and College Light Opera Company. While based in New York City, she worked with New York Opera Exchange, Village Light Opera Group, Adelphi University music department, and several Manhattan voice studios. She has worked as a pianist with regional theaters including Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre and The Little Theatre On The Square. She has also performed in many student vocal and instrumental recitals at Lawrence and Boston Universities. 

Originally from Waterville, Maine, Sarah received her Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from Boston University in 2010. She received her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Lawrence University in 2007. Sarah lives in Appleton with her husband, Aaron, and her dog, Lacey.