For 20 Years, Threads of Black American Music Have Converged Here
It’s Halloween season, when some people dress up like skeletons, ghosts or witches. But when picking her costume, Dr. Angela Wellman isn’t like most people.
“I could be Angélique Kidjo,” says the founder and CEO of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music (OPC). “Or I could be Abbey Lincoln.”
Wellman’s music center in downtown Oakland is gearing up for for a 20th anniversary gala on Oct. 24, with awards, multiple floors of entertainment, rooms in full decor and sounds from around the world. Attendees have been asked to dress up as their favorite musicians, and Wellman’s still deciding what to wear. (Tracking down an “Abbey Lincoln hat” could be the deciding factor).
She knows one thing, though: while fun, the costume invitation is also an extension of OPC’s ethos.
“It’s really about lifting up the legacy of our music,” says Wellman, “particularly Black music that was created post-Atlantic slave trade.”
Dressing as an artist who influenced you, Wellman tells me, is an opportunity to reflect on how “the people that make the music really matter in our lives.” That includes those in the ancestral realm as well as “somebody who you’re rocking with right now.”
Giving proper respect to “the now” is a core tenet for the OPC, which offers workshops and classes for growing musicians. The organization regularly invites established artists passing through the Bay Area to perform at their facility and speak to the students. Those interactions provide the students with an “understanding of whose shoulders they’re standing on,” says Wellman.
Often these visits are interactive. Acclaimed trumpeter Etienne Charles’ visit started with a workshop in the main studio, and then spilled out into the street as the students joined Charles in a New Orleans-style parade, with everyone playing. “We did a second line down the street,” Wellman says.
Past guests include jazz vocalist Melanie Charles, Afro-Peruvian artist Juan Medrano Cotito, Golden State Warriors DJ and hip-hop producer DJ D Sharp.
Special guests for the 20th anniversary include trombonist Steve Turre, a longtime member of the Saturday Night Live Band, and classical composer Mary Watkins.
Watkins, 87, is an unsung hero, Wellman attests. Watkins has composed three operas, four solo albums and scores for over 20 films and TV shows (including KQED’s Different Colors). The former music director for San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Watkins’ work has been presented locally at the Oakland Opera Theater, and nationally at venues like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institute.
“She’s a prolific composer and pianist,” Wellman says of Watkins, “so we’re giving her a lifetime achievement award.”
Steve Turre, who Wellman calls “one of the last true trombonists,” will also be honored. Turre, a sacred seashell instrumentalist, will perform alongside some star alums of OPC, including trombonist Jasim Perales, bassist Amina Scott and drummer Ayinde Webb.
“Now they’re out there in the world,” Wellman says of the graduates, “doing what we supply the space to train young people to do.”
The anniversary event will also be a chance to ruminate on the larger context of Black music in this country.
“When I think about the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music,” says Wellman, “I think of Congo Square.” The site in New Orleans where the music that most people call “jazz” originated was a place for people of the African diaspora to commune, enjoy music and tap into the spirit, says Wellman. “As each group practiced, there was this cacophony of rich sounds and polyrhythms.”
Expect OPC’s 20th anniversary event to tap into that same spirit.
The Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s 20th Anniversary and Gala takes place Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Oakland Science Academy (1515 Webster St., Oakland). Tickets and more information here.