Macon native helped by Redding foundation

Roderick L. Cox of Macon was given his first musical instrument, a French horn, through what would become The Big “O” Youth Educational Dream Foundation.

“It was basically the start of my formal education in music,” said Cox, who graduated in June with a master’s degree in music with a concentration in conducting from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.

An aspiring professional conductor, the 24-year-old Cox was to perform at the recognition dinner Saturday as part of “An Evening of Respect” fundraising event for the foundation in honor of what would have been Otis Redding’s 70th birthday.

Cox was to conduct two special pieces written in tribute to 9/11 by his composer friend William May and performed by Mercer University’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings Ensemble under the direction of Amy Schwartz Moretti. Lianna Wimberly Williams, a graduate student in vocal performance at the University of Georgia, was the vocalist.

Cox, who grew up in west Macon, is kind of a poster boy for the foundation.

A 2005 Central High School graduate, Cox was active in the Boys and Girls Club of Central Georgia since he was 9. So, when Mike Killen, who was then the director of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Georgia, learned of Cox’s desire to study music in college, Cox said. Killen contacted Zelma Redding about the horn, Cox said. The family already had been helping youth through the Otis Redding Memorial Scholarship Fund, and Zelma Redding would organize the nonprofit foundation in 2007 to honor her late husband.

The foundation also provided the opportunity for Cox, while he was earning his bachelor’s degree, to study the music of Great Britain in Oxford, England, in the summer of 2009. In addition, the foundation also afforded Cox the opportunity to be accepted in a conductor’s international workshop in Zlin in the Czech Republic in the summer of 2010.

Those key sponsorships by the foundation provided him with “so much exposure that I wouldn’t have gotten in any other way,” Cox said. “I gained great experience as a conductor.

“I’ve basically become a better musician and a better person,” said Cox, whose long-term goal is to become the music director of a major symphony orchestra.

Cox graduated summa cum laude from Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music where he received his bachelor’s degree in music education with a concentration in wind, keyboard and percussion.

Cox said he has always known and loved the music of Otis Redding, who’s been described as a “soul singer” and “Georgia-born R&B pioneer.” But Cox, whose interest lies primarily in classical music, said he was most influenced by the man.

It was the idea of a person from a town the size of Macon who was able to persevere and achieve so much that Cox said inspired him most about Redding.

Cox was also influenced by the Macon Symphony Orchestra and his high school band. And long before the music of Brahms, Tchaikovsky or Bach meant anything to him, Cox noted in an e-mail that he was first inspired in his youth by going with his mother, a gospel singer, to Friday night rehearsals of the Agape Gospel Choir.

While Cox was rehearsing Saturday afternoon inside the Macon Auditorium, the red carpet was rolled out for a host of entertainers and celebrities arriving for the dinner and a musical extravaganza tribute to Redding to later follow.

“Icing on the cake” was how Jimmy Hall, lead singer for Wet Willie, referred to being able to celebrate Redding birthday with his family at an event that would help young people like Cox.

John Cox, of Macon, the 78-year-old grandfather of Roderick Cox, was standing nearby as the celebrities arrived. The elder Cox, a retired aircraft systems supervisor at Robins Air Force Base, was excited about seeing his youngest grandson conduct.

“It means everything to me being here to back him up and to be living to see him,” he said.

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559.