Friday, February 19, 2021
A liberal arts education means students get much more than a major. In today’s conversation with Asbury President Dr. Kevin Brown, Dr. Shawn Okpebholo from the class of ’03 shares his love for music, unity, and the liberal arts. Dr. Okpebholo is an award-winning composer whose work has taken him to Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and the National Cathedral. He’s currently a professor of Music Composition and Theory at Wheaton College. Today’s episode was edited by Asbury senior Kaleb Shipman.
To learn more about Dr. Okpebholo, check out www.ShawnOkpebholo.com, where you can listen to Two Black Churches, or Stomp the Dust or one of his other pieces. Two Black Churches features baritone Will Liverman and pianist Paul Sanchez, and the poetry of Dudley Randall.
Below is a bonus segment from our interview with Dr. Shawn Okpebholo. Knowing how busy our listeners are, we limit the podcast length. However, if you’d like to hear more, you can listen to this additional excerpt from the original interview. In it, producer Doug Walker asks Dr. Okpebholo how he would advise students to pursue creative thinking.