Celebrating America's 250th Grant Spotlight: Montgomery Symphony Orchestra

“Today I want to tell the city of Selma, today I want to say to the state of Alabama, today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 25, 1965 

These words rang out at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, but their momentum did not stop on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. They carried forward—through history, through generations, and now, through music. 

When composer Dr. Nkeiru Okoye set out to write an oratorio based on the 1965 voting rights marches, she channeled Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s spirit of unstoppable movement towards equality and justice. Rather than simply recounting the events of those weeks, she built the feeling of forward motion into the architecture of the work itself. 

“There is a recurring motif and perpetual motion,” she said of the score, which unfolds across seven movements tracing the journey from Marion to Selma to Lowndes County to Montgomery. 

The music presses ahead, echoing the physical and spiritual resolve of those who walked the 54 miles for voting rights. It not only moves as the marchers moved, it gives sound to the ideals they were fighting for: equality under the law. 

“I bring spirituals, Bach, Americana, and choral traditions into the same space,” Okoye explained. “They are equal in the music, reflecting the idea that all people are equal.” 

Okoye created A Time for Jubilee, the 25-minute oratorio to honor Dr. King’s role in the marches, as part of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra’s Alabama Composers Project, which commissions one new work per season by composers who are Alabama natives or whose work is shaped by the state’s history and cultural heritage. 

A Time for Jubilee premiered on February 9, 2026, at the Troy University Davis Theatre in Montgomery, Alabama. The project was supported with a $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts award through the grant program “Celebrating America250: Arts Projects Honoring the National Garden of American Heroes.” 

In anticipation of America’s semiquincentennial, the NEA awarded 50 grants for arts projects taking place across the country that celebrate one or more of the national heroes listed in Executive Order 13978, “Building the National Garden of American Heroes,” which includes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, projects like this are telling America’s story and encouraging thoughtful engagement with the past. 

“When I say that this NEA grant really made this project happen, I mean literally it did,” said Montgomery Symphony Orchestra conductor Jamie Reeves. “Without that, I’m not sure how we would have gotten this across the finish line, so we’re very appreciative.” 

That support made it possible to bring together a broad coalition of performers outside of the symphony. An oratorio includes singing, and the piece featured soloist Laquita Mitchell alongside choirs from Tuskegee University and Alabama State University—both Historically Black Universities—and Huntingdon College, a local Montgomery college. 

For Reeves, incorporating the college choirs was a deliberate and symbolic choice, honoring the crucial role the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led by John Lewis, played in organizing and sustaining the march. 

“Students played a huge role in that movement, and for us as an arts organization to inspire the next generation of musicians and music lovers by using these students on stage—most of whom had never sung with an orchestra before—was significant,” he said. 

Okoye, along with Reeves, conducted extensive research to prepare the piece and learned that while Dr. King is one of the most prominent faces of the marches, much of the mobilization originated with local organizers and community members, including SNCC. The composer and conductor met with march participants, including Kirk Carrington, who had been just 13 years old at the time. 

“He is so incredibly proud of what was accomplished through this march,” Okoye said. 

The piece incorporates much of the tragedy and hardship that led up to Dr. King’s March 25, 1965, address on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol, including the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson, Bloody Sunday, and the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrators, but ultimately it ends on a hopeful note and the sense of pride that was reflected in Okoye’s conversations with Carrington and others. 

“You can feel the tension, the tragedy…the perseverance of the marchers and then ultimately the end…it’s not a conclusion, but more of a movement that kind of inspires the future,” Reeves said of A Time for Jubilee. 

“I learned a lot from it—and I hope everyone else did too,” Reeves continued. 

He said the symphony is in the process of bringing the oratorio to other orchestras in the hopes of sharing this piece of Alabama history and message of unity across the country. 

In the final movement, the eponymous A Time for Jubilee, the soloist sings: 

After the darkness 

We came together

After the darkness came a healing 

And we walked together 

We worked together 

We came together 

We fought together 

And we changed together 

And we won together

Okoye explained the ending is about renewal and collective healing. 

“Biblically, Jubilee is when debts are forgiven and relief is granted,” she said. “We need that coming together. We need Jubilee.”