NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By  J.K. Yamamoto

Dwight Okamura has been involved in many different projects as a musician and composer, but right now he has one full-time job: the mega-hit musical “Wicked,” known for such songs as “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.”

The show, which has been running at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre most of this year and will continue at least through March 2010, tells the story of Elphaba the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good Witch before the events of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Okamura is well-known in the classical music world as the pianist for the Berkeley Symphony, California Symphony, Skywalker Symphony and San Francisco Symphony, and has been the accompanist for Chanticleer, Bracebridge Singers, Choral Arts Society, Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, San Francisco City Chorus, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and San Francisco Girls Chorus.

He has composed numerous works as well as three musicals, and has worked with various theater companies in addition to the Best of Broadway series since 2000.

Okamura, whose mother is an accomplished koto player, grew up in Honolulu. His did his first musical, “West Side Story,” while in high school. He moved to San Francisco in 1977 to attend the Conservatory of Music, where he received a degree in composition, and has been a full-time musician ever since.

For him, the most memorable musicals have been the ones that premiered in San Francisco before opening on Broadway. “It’s very exciting to be involved in a pre-Broadway run,” he said.

He started with “Mamma Mia” in 2000, followed by “Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme,” “Wicked,” “The Mambo Kings,” “Lestat,” the revival of “A Chorus Line,” and “Legally Blonde.”

The only one that didn’t make it to Broadway was “The Mambo Kings.”

Okamura recalled, “I was very disappointed ... I thought that it had a wonderful score and the show had great potential. I feel very fortunate to have been involved in all of these shows before they moved to the Great White Way.”

His most unusual experience was with “La Boheme,” which required him to run from the orchestra pit up to the stage, put on a marching band costume, and walk around on stage playing a bass drum.

Of all the shows he has done, Okamura’s favorite so far is “Caroline, or Change” (2005), which he called “an amazing show with an incredibly well-craf ted and versatile score, and a beautiful book by Tony Kushner, who wrote ‘Angels in America.’ I played a real piano and drawbar organ in addition to a keyboard.”

Computers and Keyboards

Of “Wicked,” Okamura noted, “The unique thing about this production ... is that all of us keyboardists have laptops that are interfaced with our keyboard. The keyboard is used strictly as a controller, and all of the sampled instruments come from a computer program called Forte.

“In the past, the sounds were programmed directly into the keyboard.

Now, if adjustments to the program needs to be made, each laptop is connected to a wireless router which allows the programmer access to our computers from a remote location. This way, he can fix things with the program without physically having to be here.

“It’s tremendously helpful and efficient — the programmer was opening the show in Tokyo earlier this year and was able to make adjustments here while he was in Japan!”

Most of Okamura’s fellow musicians in the pit have classical training and experience. The percussionist, Allen Biggs, was a schoolmate at the conservatory.

There hasn’t been a lot of time for classical music these days, however. “It is very hard to juggle other gigs while committed to the ‘Wicked’ run. With eight shows a week — Tuesday to Friday evenings with two shows on Saturdays and Sundays — it doesn’t leave any evenings for other opportunities to perform. And with an open-ended run, I’ve basically had to put myself ‘off the market’.

“I am an auxiliary pianist with the San Francisco Symphony, but haven’t been able to play with them since ‘Wicked.’ I do have a vocal ensemble that I musical-direct called The Songbirds ... We do outreach performances to senior centers and homes. One of my favorites is Kokoro (Assisted Living) in Japantown. But apart from them and a few students, I don’t have time for much else. I especially miss playing for singers in recitals and cabarets.”

As a composer in his own right, Okamura has been commissioned several times by the San Francisco Girls Chorus, for whom he served as accompanist for 10 years. His works include an arrangement of “Sakura, Sakura” for the group’s 1991 tour of Osaka and “Just Imagine,” composed for the group’s 30th anniversary earlier this year.

Currently, he’s working on a setting of the Dylan Thomas poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” for Musae, a treble vocal ensemble.

Each of his musicals has a different style: “Grow Up” (1984) is a children’s musical; “Strikers” (1994) is a musical drama about a newspaper strike; and “Burning Louise” is an operatic musical now under development.

For more information on “Wicked,” visit www.shnsf.com/shows/wicked.

Those who would like to say hello to Okamura can peek into the orchestra pit during intermission.