The story behind "Of Our New Day Begun" by Omar Thomas

By Franco LaTona

The Butler School's Wind Ensemble played in Bates Recital Hall recently for the first time in over a year. One of the pieces performed was "Of Our New Day Begun," by Assistant Professor of Composition Omar Thomas. He wrote it in response to the 2015 domestic terrorist attack at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine Black Americans were killed by a white supremacist. This is the story of how the composition came to be.