Somewhere in the back of Anjelica Lindsey’s closet are a couple of her prized possessions. It’s not often she has cause to bring them out, but she knows exactly where her vintage Michael Jackson red Thriller jacket and silver rhinestone glove can be found just in case of an emergency.

While Lindsey doesn’t expect to be called upon to recreate any of the King of Pop’s iconic moves, they are a reminder of where her classical music career began.

“My big influence since literally before I can remember is the music of Michael Jackson. There are home videos of me watching his performances when I was 3 years old. Studying his music was something that has continued even to this day,” Lindsey says. “My uncle gave me a glove as a kid, and there’s a picture of me when I was little wearing a black leather jacket, and I’m standing up on my toes like I’m in the ‘Beat It’ video or something.”

It may seem unusual for a Julliard-trained composer, musician and vocalist to still get giddy about a childhood fandom. But according to Lindsey, it was Jackson, along with other artists and composers, that she grew up listening to, whose essence can still be found in the music she creates today.

Even more than that, they represent what has become a foundational element of her career and life in that we are all connected, whether we know it or not. 

“I’m a huge fan of Quincy Jones and the way that he produced those records, and the way that Quincy Jones actually moved to Paris in the 1950s to study with Nadia Boulanger, one of the greatest music teachers in the last couple hundred years,” Lindsey says. “When I discovered that her influence influenced Quincy, which influenced the music that I heard as a child, that sort of made a lot of sense — that the classical music was what I had connected with, and I didn’t know that until after I started at Julliard.”

Born at Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa, Lindsey grew up in Broken Arrow in a household filled with music. Her father had a recording studio in their home; he and his brother had put together an impressive collection of synthesizers, tape machines and recording equipment that was passed on to her. She and her husband, Mark, would use it to start Wild Mountain Studios in their Osage Hills home.

Lindsey, who is part Cherokee, began playing the violin at age 11. But she wasn’t done there: She taught herself to play the piano and guitar as well.

“I have known that music was my primary life path since I was a child, and it’s guided every decision,” Lindsey says. “I always like to say that choosing to play the violin was the best decision I ever made, and it guided everything else that has unfolded in my life. One instrument leads to other music, which leads to relationships, which leads to communities, which leads to all kinds of inspiration, and that’s definitely been it for me forever.”

That inspiration is the basis of Lindsey’s upcoming show, The Oklahoma Woman Quartet. With the backing of a grant from the Artist Creative Fund, the groundbreaking chamber performance will debut on March 1 at The Bellview in Tulsa.

“The grant is part of CACHE, an organization that partnered with the George Kaiser Family Foundation to help artists like me be able to experiment and bring their work to life,” Lindsey says. “This opportunity allowed me to hire players from the Tulsa Symphony and the Bartlesville Symphony to bring a quartet to life that I have had completed since 2017, and have just now had the amazing opportunity to bring it into the world.”

Lindsey will join handpicked musicians to perform music she has composed and crafted during the past two decades. They include Associate Concertmaster Ronnamarie Jensen (violin), Paulo Eskitch (violin), Ashley Allison (cello) and Ethan Landis (viola).

"I have known that music was my primary life path since I was a child, and it's guided every decision." –Anjelica Lindsey

The Oklahoma Woman Quartet is not just a musical experience, but also a historical journey.

“I’m the Oklahoma Woman, and the women of my past are the Oklahoma woman,” Lindsey says. “I like the idea that we have had this shared experience in our life, even though every generation has a little bit different experience in life. The Oklahoma Woman has faced things that overlap. So the Oklahoma Woman Quartet is the launch of my ensemble, and this time it is a quartet. And it may be a quintet in the future; it may be a different instrumentation; it may be an orchestra. But the Oklahoma Woman Ensemble launch, we will start with the quartet.”

According to Lindsey, the event marks the first time a Cherokee woman has composed and premiered a string quartet in U.S. history. While she is flattered at being a pioneer and innovator, she also knows others may just not have had the same opportunity to have their story told.  

“When I realized it, I talked to musicologists and studied extensively looking for other Cherokee women composers, other native women composers, and have not found any to my knowledge,” Lindsey says. “I hope that they are out there, I hope so. I hope that if nothing else, that I inspire them to come forward and bring their work to life as well. But when I realized how rare my combination of skills and my ambition was just not like anybody else, it actually was very validating and made a lot more sense of why I had the experience that I had in life in general — because I was a trailblazer and really didn’t realize it.”

Tickets for the Oklahoma Woman Quartet went on sale Jan. 11. By Jan. 12 the show was almost completely sold out. Even Lindsey was surprised at the demand, since she hadn’t had a chance to launch a serious promotional campaign.

Yet, for the lucky ones who are able to experience the premiere of The Oklahoma Woman Quartet, Lindsey wants them to not only see and hear her, but also the women whose story has yet to be told. 

“I hope that it just spreads the music and just grows, and that people are excited to know that Cherokee music has a whole new sound — because Cherokees are making music that doesn’t sound stereotypical, that doesn’t sound like maybe what a misrepresentation in their mind thought it sounded like. I could kind of break through some of those misconceptions and tell the stories of what it’s really been like. And maybe there are others that have thought, ‘I always wanted to do music, but I didn’t know how’ or thought, ‘I wasn’t sure how to make it happen.’

“I could perhaps show a way.”

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