Sound is hugely influential in how we interpret our surroundings and especially the moods and emotions that we attribute to visual images such as film.
Black Panther
On April 28 and 29, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic will perform the soundtrack of the Marvel Studio’s film Black Panther live alongside the film.
Performances such as this one present unique challenges for the concerts’ conductor, in the form of aligning the live music’s timing to perfectly coincide with the images on the screen and the film’s pre-recorded dialogue and sound effects.
“It’s that syncing of the sound with the film—that’s kind of the tricky part,” Oklahoma City Philharmonic Music Director Alexander Mickelthwate said. “And there are different types of ways of doing it.”
Mickelthwate described three different ways to match the music to the visual images, including a time he tackled matching the tempo to the movie by hand.
“I didn’t have any help,” he said.
Instead, he had to write into his sheet music the places where each visual image should occur in time with the music.
Option two is a visual tempo indicator.
“You have a screen in front of you,” Mickelthwate said. “And always a bar going from the top to bottom.”
But the easiest way is the third method he described: an earpiece with a click track coordinated to the film on the screen that the audience will be watching.
The guest conductor for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic performance, Julian Pellicano, will have two rehearsals with the orchestra prior to performance.
Remembering Clara Luper
The OKC Philharmonic will perform also perform Joan Tower’s “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” and Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story” before concluding with Hannibal Lokumbe’s “Trials, Tears, Transcendence: The Journey of Clara Luper” on May 13.
The performance will be conducted by Alexander Mickelthwate and will feature guest soprano Karen Slack.
“There are several reasons why this is a really phenomenal concert,” new Executive Director Brent Hart said. “And one is that a couple of years ago we commissioned a composer named Hannibal Lokumbe to create a piece that helps memorialize and tell the story of Clara Luper.”
Born in 1923, Luper received her bachelor’s degree from Langston University and her master’s from the University of Oklahoma—“the first African American admitted to the graduate history program,” according to The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture from The Oklahoma Historical Society.
“Clara Luper is an Oklahoma City hero,” Hart said. “She fought for equality and civil rights in a peaceful yet transformative way. Her career as an educator, as an advocate and as a champion for civil rights is really a story that needs to be told and a life that needs to be celebrated.”
“Luper became the advisor for the Oklahoma City National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council in 1957,” according to The Oklahoma Historical Society, and the youth council held numerous sit-ins starting in 1957 and into the early 1960s.
The performance by the OKC Philharmonic aims to remember and honor Luper’s legacy of nonviolent civil rights protest.
“We commissioned the piece and we will be performing it with a lot of input from the community and Clara Luper’s daughter, Marilyn Hildreth,” Hart said. “It’s a way of having the Oklahoma City Philharmonic woven into and her story woven into the fabric of musical repertoire that’s available for generations to come.”
The piece “Trials, Tears, Transcendence: The Journey of Clara Luper,” was commissioned by the Oklahoma City Philharmonic to commemorate Lupers birth a century prior in May 1923.
“I think that’s very powerful and to have seen that entire process sort of come to fruition,” Hart said, “and to be able to hear it played on stage from just an idea to, to an incredible tribute is going to be a very meaningful and a moving experience.”
Film soundtrack concerts like this one help musical organizations such as OKC Phil reach new audiences.
“Being able to see the movie on screen and hearing the music played live—it’s just a completely different experience,” Hart said. “And so it helps us provide that orchestral music sound to new audiences so that then they can, you know, potentially envision them coming back to see something that creates that same vibe, but maybe something that they’re not quite as familiar with.”
Hart started his new role on Mar. 13, but first became a part of OKC Phil through volunteering.
“I was volunteering for activities within the Phil and joined the young professionals board, called the associate board,” he said. “The associate board hosts fundraiser events and other special events for young professionals who purchase a small series of pops tickets.”
Over time, he became increasingly involved in the philharmonic’s leadership. During his time on the board of directors, he was part of several hiring processes including the initial search for his current position. After the search committee’s second meeting, Hart decided to step down from the committee in order to become a candidate for the position himself, he said.
“I’ve spent the bulk of my career in human resources with a focus on employee development,” he said, “That’s everything from learning programs to to development programs and coaching within corporations.”
His love for music, however, began young and it was that love that first led him to volunteer.
“It’s just a passion for the program and the music. I’ve been a concert-goer for most of my adult life, and even in my teen years, I’ve been a fan of all types of live performances from musicals to operas to symphonies,” he said.
Visit okcphil.org
