Hi everyone, this is Yukimi, host and producer
of The Piano Pod. In this special bonus episode,
I am honored to welcome back Dr. Nena Ogwo, the
brilliant pianist, educator, and founder of Juneteenth
LP. Juneteenth LP is more than a concert series.
It's a movement that reclaims space for Black
classical musicians by centering history, celebrating
legacy, and creating a future rooted in liberation
and joy. As the organization marks its 10th anniversary
this year, Nena reflects on the journey from
its beginnings at Joe's Pub to becoming a powerful
platform for education, performance, and community.
We talk about what inspired her to launch Juneteenth
LP, what audiences can expect from this year's
milestone concert, and why honoring Black voices
in classical music is essential, not just in
June, but all year round. So, let's dive in.
Thank you so much for being here. And first of
all, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation
to you and your organization, Juneteenth LP,
for sponsoring the final episodes of The Pianopods
Season 5. It truly feels like the perfect way
to wrap up this season, dedicated to authenticity
and joy with your support and vision. Thank you
for having us. And it's our honor and our pleasure
to sponsor the last two episodes of what has
been a stellar, stellar season. We have been.
enthralled by the guests they have been absolutely
spectacular oh yeah thank you so much i appreciate
your really support now we're featuring two remarkable
guests this last month and dr leah clayborne
on june 3rd and our season finale would be with
dr maria thompson corley both conversations were
deeply inspiring and it's all thanks to you nana
for bringing us together You give me too much
credit, but they are wonderful people. And we
were very fortunate to have that all come together
in the way that it did. And I'm so glad that
you got to, I'm glad that you personally got
to meet them, but also I'm glad that the larger
community is going to get to meet them and know
them as the people that they are, but the musicians
that they are and the educators that they are.
All together. Oh, incredible people. And I'm
just feeling so fortunate. So now for those who
may be new to Dr. Ogwo Nena's work, if you haven't
heard our full conversation with her from last
season, season four, episode four, where I got
to invite and interview Nena. Was it season four
or was it season three? Season four. The only
last season. I know. Oh, my gosh, you're right.
Yeah, but the thing is, it was toward the early
season four, so it feels like a really long time
ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I encourage you, my
friends who are listening and tuning in today,
to go back and listen to her episode. You can
find the episode link in the description. Today,
I just wanted to take a few minutes to highlight
Juneteenth LP, Dr. Ogwo's amazing, amazing organization,
The Ensemble, and then her passion project. that
grew out of her first Juneteenth concert celebration
10 years ago at Joe's Pub, a cornerstone of New
York's creative music scene. So let's start with
the basics, Lena. For anyone just discovering
the Juneteenth LP, what does that organization
do and how does it carry out its mission? Well,
this ensemble was born out of this concert that
I gave. In 2016, I was invited to be a part of
Toshi Reagan's Good Folks series at Joe's Pub.
And it was originally supposed to be the preceding
year, but my mother passed away in that year
in the spring. And so, of course, I didn't do
it that year. And it was a very hard thing because
I wanted to do a Juneteenth show. And so the
following year, my mother and I were very close.
So that hit me very, very hard. And, you know,
Toshi's a really sort of intuitive and compassionate
person. And so I was talking to her about it
and she just sort of said in a very kind way,
do you want to share the show? You know, sort
of not have to carry the whole thing yourself.
And I kind of just said, you know, yeah. And
so. I shared the set with Juliet Jones, a fabulous
violinist, arranger. And at the time she lived
in New York. Now I think she's based in LA. And
so we put on this show and it was an amazing
experience. And what was significant about it,
aside from it being great and great fun, was
that in Juliet's set, There was a cellist performing
named Eric Cooper. And the following year, I
came back and I shared this show with Tarek El
Sabir, a fabulous singer -composer. And so I
asked Eric if he would be on my set that year.
And he agreed. He was really into it. And so
he was on my set that second season, that second
year. And we had a great time again. And he said
to me, I think that what you're doing is really
special. And I just want you to know that whatever
you decide to do, I want to support you. And,
you know, he's younger than I am. And I don't
know about how old you are, but, you know, my
generation did not actually work collaboratively.
Right. And and we definitely we were we we were
raised to sort of hoard our resources and not
share opportunities. And, you know, if you if
you found out about something, you didn't tell
other people about it. You just sort of kept
it to yourself and you, you know, sort of a scarcity
mindset. And his generation is a little bit different.
And they're very much like, we support our friends
and we see someone doing something really good
and we support them. And we, you know, we sort
of like put our backs to the task together and
collaborate. And so I didn't really respond to
him saying that right away. Right. And he had
to say it to me a few times for me to say, okay.
You know, like I really couldn't respond to that.
And so then when I finally, and we had worked
with a singer, we brought in a singer and she
said the same thing. And so then I finally, so
then all of a sudden I had a little bit of a
team and we were like, oh, I think we're doing
this. And so the next season, we were basically
an ensemble that. So the third season was when
Juneteenth LP was basically an ensemble that
presented that concert. And we weren't official
that year. We weren't official until 2021. But
that was basically the year that we came together
in this sense of we present Black music and we
present Black music with this focus on... introducing
the audience to black classical composers and
then also playing all kinds of genres so that
the space is welcoming to anybody who happens
to come in and they aren't intimidated by a classical
space like I don't know what this music is and
I feel intimidated and I don't know when to clap
none of that so if you feel moved to clap that's
fine if you don't know when to clap and you clap
at the wrong place that's fine and we acknowledge
that you know if you if you're moved and you
clap in the middle of you know in between a movement
and that's not the right place the right time
and place to clap that you know we let we acknowledge
that and we um we express appreciation and we
put people at ease you know that that whole um
the classical elitism is something that we try
to dispel and we try to make black and brown
people feel as welcome as possible so our mission
is to grow the classical music audience by meeting
people where they are. So if you did not grow
up hearing classical music, you can come to one
of our concerts and hear music by Stevie Wonder
and hear music by Lizzo and hear music by musicians
that you're probably hearing on Spotify or whoever's,
you know, on your playlist rotation, as well
as music that your grandmother's listening to
or music that I might be listening to. But then
we're also going to introduce you to music by
Burley and we're going to introduce you to music
by Courtney Bryan and we're going to introduce
you to music by Nkiru Okoye. And you're going
to start to hear a through line of like, what?
what Black classical composers are writing and
their influences that are very much the same
as, you know, your influences and what you're
listening to. And we're trying to put everything
into a historical context so that you understand
that all of this music actually belongs to you.
And that there's none of the, you know, that
classical music has always been popular music.
And just because we rarefied it and put it in
spaces that feel intimidating to you, that we
don't believe that that actually. is real. We
think that that's a construct. And so that's
the mission of Juneteenth LP, to play music of
all of the African diaspora, regardless of genre.
And in doing so, grow the classical music audience.
Because the fact of the matter is that classical
music audience is shrinking. And if we don't
do something radically different, we're going
to sort of, you know... lead ourselves out of
jobs and an existence and it doesn't have to
be that way at all absolutely yeah that's true
and what's great about is those music that you're
going to play but performed by mainly classical
Musicians. Classical musicians. Exactly. That's
amazing. I attended last year. It was fantastic.
I attended the one that you hosted. You were
hosted by Metropolitan Museum last year. You
were presenting the composition by Samuel Coolidge.
Samuel Coleridge -Taylor. Taylor, right? And
then also a few days later, of course, I attended
the June 19th last year, the Juneteenth concert
at Joe's Pub and with your group. So basically,
how do you carry out this mission? So you have
several different events in a week of Juneteenth,
right? Yes, a week, sometimes two weeks, depending
on, you know. when we can get things scheduled.
But the events range in scope. So for example,
last year, I was fortunate enough to have the
opportunity to present a Met expert talk. And
what I did was I selected an instrument to focus
on, and I got to play a beautiful a beautiful
period piano, um, an arcade piano. It was gorgeous.
And, um, what was amazing about it was that it
was a piano. Um, it was a French piano from 19.
Oh, I want to say, Oh, four Oh five. Yeah. Something
like that. I remember. Yes. My memory is not
so great on that, but the point is, is that it
was, um, it was a French piano, but they had
a factory in London. So it's actually entirely
possible that that piano could have existed in,
you know, that, that, that was a possible intersection
point of Samuel Coleridge Taylor's life. Like
he could have actually, not that he could have
played that piano or own that piano, but it's
entirely possible that he could have, he could
have played, you know, one of those pianos right
um because you know those pianos were being sold
and made in london you know and that's where
he lived um and um and he was writing these pieces
these opus 59 um 24 negro melodies around that
time and so it was it was a wonderful um opportunity
to be able to i cannot believe that i cannot
remember the name of this french piano it's it's
this medication start with e yes erard erard
oh my gosh i could not believe i could not remember
it thank you so much so this erard piano anyway
and it's a beautiful um art case piano with a
swan on it it's it was absolutely stunning um
But what was amazing was to be able to present
about Samuel Coleridge Taylor's music, this particular
collection of pieces. I've played a couple of
them. And to talk about him, the composer, and
his sort of his musical inquiries about his life
and his history, you know, his African father
and his explorations into his personal and cultural
identity. As he wrote these pieces. So it's his
cultural history and to be talking about it in
the context of Juneteenth and our cultural history
in this nation and to be playing it in the Met
in this sort of, you know, institution that houses,
you know, cultural history on this historical
instrument. And it was a, it was a really. rare
moment, right, to be able to give that lecture
on that instrument in that space at that time,
you know, for Juneteenth week. So that was sort
of special. But this year, we're doing date night
at the Met, right? And normally, you know, date
night at the Met, that's a gig. But what's really
special about this date, these two date nights
at the Met, is that the Met has been working
to sort of reimagine its Africa wing. And so
it's doing a renovation and there's going to
be a special exhibit. And if you're someone who
pays attention to the Met Gala, you know, there's
this exhibit, you know, super fine about Black
Dandyism. And so that was the theme of the Met
Gala. It was great. Right. Fantastic. Right.
And so June 13th is going to feature Sterling
Strings and they're going to do a lot of Afropop,
which is going to sort of lean in to the African
wing and Afropop and Afrobeats. So that's going
to be the music that they're going to be playing
on Friday the 13th and on Saturday the 14th,
Violinist. Edward Hardy and I are going to be
playing a show that leans into Black Dandyism.
And so we're going to be playing some beautiful,
we're going to be playing summertime and, you
know, some jazz and it don't mean a thing if
it ain't got that swing. We're going to be playing
a little bit of Edith Piaf and we're going to
be playing a little, you know, just really wonderful
things that sort of lean into that sort of suave,
elegant, joie de vivre, you know. that kind of
programming. And so it's going to be a lot of
fun to explore this idea of elegance and flair
and style, but sort of explored in a sonic framework.
Yeah. And then you also have some other events
as well in Harlem also. We do. Well, not quite
in Harlem. I guess it's Morningside. The Interchurch
Center, we're going to be giving a concert, cello
and piano music, music by Shostakovich, Samuel
Coleridge -Taylor, and Evan Williams. And it's
going to be this interplay of composers, how
they treat melodic material. Right. So it's the
Shostakovich Cello Sonata. Evan Williams is Cantigas
for Cello Piano. And then Samuel Coleridge -Taylor,
we're going to revisit the Negro Melodies. And
that's a noonday concert. And so that's, I think,
108th and Claremont. I'm not quite sure the exact
address, but we're really excited to do that.
The noonday concert. at interchurch are a long
-standing tradition and we're so happy to be
a part of it and be a part of their juneteenth
programming there and then our portrait of the
artist series that we've just started we love
this thing that we've created where we take an
artist that's um established and we invite them
to come and perform something that they really
love that they're emotionally attached to that
they've performed for a long time and um talk
to them about how playing a piece for a long
time and the ways in which they've changed as
an artist and they've noticed that they've changed
as an artist and how that's reflected in their
interpretations over time. So this fabulous soprano
Indira Mahajan is going to come and she's going
to do two songs that focus on the headiness of
summer. One is Gershwin's Summertime, and the
other is Valerie Caper's Summer from Songs of
the Seasons. And it's not about so much a heavy
lift in terms of performing. It's going to be
about the performance, but then the discussion
that we have afterward about their life in music,
but also this process of interpretation and how
it changes over time and so it's like looking
through a kaleidoscope and you see it shift and
change and shift and change shift and change
and it's something that we really wanted the
audience to get to experience getting to know
the artist in a very specific way as reflected
through you know beloved pieces of music so I'll
be interviewing her but then the audience gets
to ask questions oh wonderful so basically Juneteenth
LLP events start nearly two weeks earlier and
then just two weeks full of events that showcase
black artists and composers and then uh compositions
and just to that geared toward up to the point
of june 19th where the iconic concert happens
every year at 6 30 uh that's time yeah get your
tickets now yes get your tickets now You can
get your tickets at publictheater .org or you
can find the link in the show notes. So thank
you, Dana, for sharing your vision and for all
the incredible work you do. You are such an inspirational
person. And to really center Black voices in
classical music, it's so, so important. The inclusion
is so important. You have no idea what incredible
work you're doing. You are very, very kind. And
thank you for encouraging the work that we do.
I do want to say that while the performance element
is definitely important, we are, it has been
a, as you know, you know, establishing anything
is a steep learning curve, right? If you've never
done it before. And we are, we sort of finally
have gotten our footing and we are now sort of.
moving into the educational component where we're
creating educational modules that we are designing
to be able to be used for early grades from like
kindergarten up through high school and into
college, because we do feel like, you know, I
had this, I had this interesting conversation
with, with a clarinetist who said, you know,
she said, I, I wish I knew, I wish school was
taught differently. You know, if you had been
taught in chemistry about the ways in which chemical
compounds applied to like, for example, like
the lacquer that, that is used on your instrument
and like how the discovery of certain compounds
changed, like, you know, lacquers and on, you
know, clarinets or whatever, you know. Like you
would have been much more engaged, for example,
in chemistry, or you would have been much more
engaged in science if you had understood how
like science is used in everything, in every
way in which we engage in our world. And it takes
like, it's a heavy lift. It's a lot to ask, you
know, overworked public school teachers to find
all the ways in which to engage in like. a class
with 40 students who probably have different
interests. But I think that there might be a
way in which different organizations might be
able to find ways in which to engage students
who have different interests. You know, like,
isn't this fascinating? This is what Black composers
were doing at this particular time in history.
And maybe it's not talked about in your class,
but we can bring this, we can bring these educational
modules in. That might make history more interesting
or that might make science more interesting or
that might make whatever more interesting. And
that's something that we can do to facilitate
making school more fascinating for children without
having to overburden the teachers who are in
the classroom every day, just trying to, you
know, wrangle 25 to 45 students. you know, in
an overburdened classroom situation. So we're
trying to figure out ways in which we can, you
know, create modules that are interesting and
dynamic and engaging. So that's our next step.
Great. There's so many opportunities waiting
for you with your organization. So friends, do
not miss Juneteenth LP's 10th anniversary celebration
in New York City, kicking off on June 8th with
Portrait of an Artist featuring soprano Indira
Mahajan. And wrapping up with the iconic Juneteenth
LP concert at Joe's Pub on June 19th at 6 .30
p .m. featuring the full Juneteenth LP ensemble.
Get your tickets now at joespub .org and for
the full lineup of events, visit juneteenthlp
.org. Thank you, Dana. Thank you so much.