FOX23 “On Her Mind” Segment features Anjelica Lindsey, On Her Mind: Tulsan composes what's believed to be first symphony by Indigenous woman

Anjelica Lindsey was featured on FOX23 News’ On Her Mind series, part of FOX23 News in May of 2025 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The segment was produced by Michelle Linn and aired as part of the station’s ongoing profile series highlighting women working in creative and professional fields.

FOX23’s On Her Mind is a recurring feature that presents in-depth interviews and studio-based profiles filmed in Tulsa, combining on-camera conversation with location-based b-roll.

The feature focused on Lindsey’s work as a composer, including her recent and ongoing projects in orchestral and chamber music, as well as her broader artistic practice in contemporary composition.

The segment is part of FOX23 News’ weekday morning programming.

On Her Mind: Tulsan composes what's believed to be first symphony by Indigenous woman

Michelle Linn May 27, 2026 Updated Jun 3, 2026

A Tulsa woman is composing music that may be the first of its kind.

TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa woman is composing music that may be the first of its kind.

High atop the Osage Hills in west Tulsa, a Cherokee woman is composing music that may be first of its kind.

Anjelica Lindsey says music was always part of her life. From as early as she can remember, she grew up singing and playing and always knew she'd make a living making music.

She's a vocalist, violinist and composer working alongside her sound engineer husband Mark Kuykendall inside Wild Mountain Studios, the recording studio attached to their home.

The two built all of it, the home, the studio and this life surrounded by nature, by hand.

"We had to kinda make things harder on ourselves by saying we want this creative place in the woods, and we're gonna make a studio and we're gonna do it different, but doing it different was really worth it," said Anjelica.

Creativity isn't just about what she does.

"When you're an artist, it's the way that you live. Creativity is just a way of life completely. I played violin in the orchestra for a couple of decades and I noticed that I was always watching how the other instruments were doing their parts. I just lived for these beautiful moments in the music," said Anjelica.

Last year, she premiered the Oklahoma woman Quartet, the first string quartet by a Cherokee woman, recorded here at Wild Mountain with Tulsa symphony musicians. Now, she and her husband are mixing and mastering the studio album.

"The statistics are very clear that women in classical music and indigenous women in classical music are a rarity and the representation just isn't there," said Anjelica.

Now she's enrolled in a program at the Julliard School in New York and composing what's believed to be the first symphony by an indigenous woman.

"This can't be the first symphony by an indigenous woman, but to my knowledge it actually could be, so I'm just continuing that search. So for now, I've named it symphony number one and if I find another woman who's written one I'll change it to symphony number two. What's incredible about the Julliard experience is that I thought it would be intimidating and I would just kind of like be strong for it and get through it and it was actually the opposite. My teacher really unlocked a lot of the things that were holding me down on that glass ceiling. This might not have existed before me doing it," said Anjelica.

She's not just writing music, she's writing history.

"When I hear that music in my mind, it's like oh no it already exists. You know what is inside of you and you have to have your voice heard and you have to listen to that really positive inner voice and you have to make your music, whatever your music is, you have to make it," said Anjelica.

From childhood dreams, to a life she composed, note by note.