As an active composer and teacher, Shawn E. Okpebholo's music has been performed in at least 25 states and in parts of Europe. Some ensembles include the Cincinnati Chamber Players, United States Army Field Band, CCM Wind Symphony, Asbury College Orchestra, members of the New York Phil Harmonic, the Royal Belgian Navy Band, among other notable music groups. His music has also been broadcasted on WGUC 90.9 FM, Cincinnati's local affiliate of NPR. Shawn has had many works published and his music has been commercially recorded several times.
Shawn has studied with the late “Disney Legend,” Buddy Baker, at New York University in an ASCAP-sponsored film-scoring workshop. He was nationally selected to be a part of the National Band Association and Bands of America's Young Composer Mentor Project. Shawn has twice won the Kentucky Music Educators Association All-College Composition Contest and is a three-time winner of Asbury College's Peniston Honors in Composition. Since becoming a member of ASCAP, Shawn has received annual awards.
Shawn is currently on the Board of Advisors of the Blue Ash/Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, a member of ASCAP, Society of Composers Incorporated, and is the Artistic Director of The Eden Project, a contemporary chamber music ensemble.
Shawn began private composition study at age fourteen with James Curnow. He received a B.A. in music composition and musicology from Asbury College where he continued to study composition with James Curnow and Ronald Holz. Currently Shawn is attending the University of Cincinnati College, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where he just received his M.M. in composition and is pursuing a D.M.A. in composition with a cognate in music theory. At CCM, he is studying composition with Joel Hoffman and Michael Fiday, and he has studied electro-acoustic and computer music with Mara Helmuth, and jazz composition with Paul Piller.