LOU W. BROCK

Description of Art

​Wahzhazhe: An Osage Ballet - Composer ("Royalty of the Plains," "Pawhuska Oil," and "Reign of Terror") The Osage Timeline - 1st ed. (2013) and 2nd ed. (2014) including short synopsis of Osage historical facts. (out of print)

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Artist Biography 

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Lou Brock (Osage/Omaha) has lived in many locations including Lake Charles, Louisiana, Dacca, East Pakistan, Stillwater, Ralston, Oklahoma City and currently residing in Pawnee. He retired from Southwestern Bell Telephone Company/SBC Communications, Inc. with 30 years’ service and has worked with the Osage Nation for 16 years, now currently works part-time as a Sergeant-at-Arms for the Osage Nation Congress in Pawhuska and as Town Clerk/Treasurer for the Town of Ralston. Mr. Brock has been playing piano, organ and keyboard for over 60 years. First trained in his first hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, at the age of four, with Virginia Fontana-Raftery, using his late grandmother's Cable upright piano for practicing, which he still practices on, and then finishing up his musical education and association with the late Loretta Hale Lantz-Porter of Pawnee. He has played at weddings, funerals, and raised money for the Fairfax Senior Citizens group back in the mid-1980's, as well as fundraising for Stage Right Productions beginning in 2017. He and his wife have awarded several year-long scholarships to the late Mrs. Porter’s chosen top students. In 2009, Lou wrote a score of music for a new exhibit (“We Walk in Two Worlds”) at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock, which became the inspiration for a ballet, which premiered in 2012, entitled, “Wahzhazhe: An Osage Ballet”, giving the audience a look at the Osage history through the art of ballet dance. Along with Dr. Joseph Rivers of the University of Tulsa, and Scott George on traditional songs, he composed three important parts of the music, and Dr. Rivers arranged the entire set. The ballet company performed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. in March, 2013. As well as several cities in Oklahoma (2013), Santa Fe, New Mexico (2016), Rolla, Missouri (2017). The opening scene of the ballet was chosen for the Papal Visit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2015, as the only American Indian Tribe to do this for him. He is also credited as the author of "The Osage Timeline" (1st ed. 2013 and 2nd ed. 2014) and is currently working on a 3rd edition. He also is looking to publish a book that his late father, Wheeler Eagle Brock, a former Osage Tribal Councilman, had written of short stories, some of which included some amazing Osage history.

Under the guidance of his mentor and former director of the Osage Tribal Museum, he is listed as a reference on numerous books, including: • 2007 – “Bootheel Man,” Swingle, Morley • 2010 – “The Osage Indian Reign of Terror: The Violence of Bill Hale 1921-1923,” Underhill, Lonnie • 2012 – “The Red Land to the South: American Indian Writers and Indigenous Mexico,” Cox, James Howard • 2015 – “Osage and Settler: Reconstructing Shared History through an Oklahoma Family Archive,” Berry-Hess, Janet • 2017 – “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Grann, David • 2017 – “John Joseph Mathews: Life of an Osage Writer,” Snyder, Michael • 2019 – “Wedding Clothes and the Osage Community: A Giving Heritage,” Swan, Daniel C. and Cooley, Jim Lou is currently the principal organist for Sunday Morning Mass at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Pawhuska, as well as principal pianist and organist at the First Baptist Church in Fairfax, and has served as a pianist and organist for Ralston First Baptist Church (1971-75, 2000-11, 2014-17), and the Osage Indian Baptist Church in Pawhuska (2011-14). He gave a 90-minute concert on the pipe organ and grand piano at the First Osage Baptist Church in Fairfax on April 30, 2017, where over a hundred people attended. There, he performed, live, his composition from the Osage Ballet, entitled “Reign of Terror” which received a standing ovation from the audience. On October 22, 2017, he set a record for himself by playing at three different churches (Immaculate Conception Catholic in Pawhuska, First Osage Baptist in Fairfax and Osage Indian Baptist Church in Pawhuska) on the same day. December 24-25, 2017, he performed five different services (three at ICCC and two at First Osage Baptist), including a Midnight Mass and a Monday Mass service. Mr. Brock is a cheerleader and philanthropist with Stage Right Productions, LLC, located at Pawnee High School, where he accompanies youngsters on piano of all ages in their singing talents on and off stage, and performs background music for the Skiatook Art Center’s art exhibitions. Lou met and married his wife, Rosalie, in 1979, and have two wonderful schnauzer fur babies.