Maestro Mickelthwate: Clara Luper tribute to honor OKC civil rights movement

Growing up in Germany, I always idolized America. The culture intrigued me, and I was captivated by the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ‘60s. Rosa Parks, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. What an inspiration they were, and what a legacy they left behind. Not just a legacy of equality, but a legacy of peace and love.

One of my goals as music director for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic is to bring our community together. Diversity enriches all our lives. We are all connected, and in music, the language of the soul, at every concert we are witnessing the beautifully unifying aspect to it. Diversity is simply about an unbelievably creative, never-ending palette of beauty. To be able to provide a canvas to this is so satisfying and so humbling.

When I moved to Oklahoma four years ago to lead the OKCPHIL, I began doing research on the state’s history. One name that kept recurring was Clara Luper.

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So, I set up a lunch with Clara’s daughter, Marilyn. Joyce Jackson joined us. She was one of the children who was with Clara at her famous sit-in back in 1958. And singer Jabee Williams was there at the lunch, too. It was fantastic. I had goosebumps several times, because suddenly I was there, this little German boy, sitting next to those civil rights leaders Marilyn and Joyce. Wow.

When I heard May 2023 would have been Clara’s 100th birthday, I knew the OKCPHIL had to celebrate her life through a new work of music.

Hannibal Lokumbe has had an international career as a jazz trumpeter and as a composer, so he was a natural fit to compose an original piece to honor Clara. Hannibal is not only a musician and composer, he is a philosopher, a thinker and a beautiful human being. When I asked him to write a new orchestral work to commemorate Clara, he not only said yes, he said he would be honored.

Our OKCPHIL tribute to Clara is set for May 13 at the Civic Center Music Hall. While that is still several months away, I think it’s important during Black History Month to recognize Clara and those children who paved the way for civil rights here in Oklahoma City. Although they were spit at and mocked, they had the inner strength and poise to stand their ground in the most peaceful manner. There is nothing more beautiful and powerful than this.

I just hope to have a small part of bringing this heroism out and into our collective consciousness. And to inspire all of us to participate in doing good.

Maestro Alexander Mickelthwate is the music director for Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Maestro: Clara Luper tribute to honor OKC civil rights movement