OKORIE "OKCELLO" JOHNSON: Chillest of the Cellist

Creativity in Captivity

An Atlanta-based cellist-composer, looper, improviser, and storyteller, that has been featured on the Tamaron Hall Show, received a Kennedy Center Office Hours Artist Residency, and has been accepted as a sound installation artist for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 2022 Biennale. Okorie is a co-composer and performer of a cello concerto Liminal, an Atlanta Concerto, that enjoyed a world premiere in February of 2023 with The Georgia Symphony Orchestra. He scored a documentary for the Atlanta Journal Constitution named Imperfect Alibi which won a regional Emmy, and he also scored a children’s theatre show for the Alliance Theatre named Head to Toe, which won a Suzi Bass Award. He has opened for Maxwell and recorded and/or performed with India.Arie, De La Soul, and Big Boi of Outkast. He has 3 studio albums - Liminal, Resolve, and Beacon - and a Christmas EP, An Ok Christmas. His work centers on themes and expressions of the African Diaspora, while also exploring the phenomenon of musical prayer.