The Ada area is in for a musical treat when the Oklahoma City Philharmonic travels to town for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 29 inside East Central University’s Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center. All the music will reflect Native American culture.
The concert, part of the Inasmuch Foundation Classic Series, will feature a piece by Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate. The bassoon concerto is from Tate’s “Ghost of the White Deer” and will be performed by guest bassoonist Rod Ackmann.
“Hearing Rod perform the concerto will be a treat,” said Maestro Alexander Mickelthwate, Music Director for the OKCPHIL. “We both independently fell in love with it. When I called Rod last summer to carefully inquire if he liked the idea, he was so excited and had already bought the sheet music a while ago just for himself.”
Two works by another Oklahoma composer, the late Jack Kilpatrick, are also on the program.
“He grew up in Tahlequah,” Mickelthwate said. “He married a Cherokee, spoke the Cherokee language and composed Native American Music.”
Kilpatrick was, for a time, an arranger with the Oklahoma Symphony—the precursor to the OKCPHIL. His music was performed by orchestras around the world, but after his death in 1967, his body of work was misplaced until recently.
“His entire catalog was discovered on a shelf at the University of Oklahoma in 2018,” Mickelthwate said. “There were about 30 boxes gathering dust and tucked inside was all this great material. We are so fortunate to have this and to be able to bring it back to life for new audiences to enjoy.”
Kilpatrick’s newly rediscovered works will be showcased in Ada and include “Four Ozark Dances” and “Three Cherokee Cosmogenic Legends.”
“This will be a really fun night of Oklahoma stories and music,” Mickelthwate said. “It will be exciting connecting with the people of Ada and introducing them to our wonderful Oklahoma City Philharmonic.”
Mayan culture will be showcased with “La Noche de los Mayas,” a symphony by Silvestre Revuelta based on images and legends of the Mayas prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Tickets are on sale for only $5 at the East Central University Box Office; students and children will be admitted free of charge. Citizens Bank Ada and the Inasmuch Foundation made the low price of admission possible. Tickets can be purchased at ecok.edu/boxoffice, via email at boxoffice@ecok.edu or by calling 580-559-5751. The box office is open from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
