From: Matoaca, Virginia. LA Opera: Annunciation (world premiere as part of Russell Thomas's recital on February 25, 2023)
Damien Geter is an acclaimed bass-baritone, actor and composer whose credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen.
He is a composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the Black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice. His growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, orchestral and full operatic works. Some recent highlights include commissions Cantata for a Hopeful Tomorrow for the Washington Chorus with subsequent performances at Pacific Chorale, Invisible for Opera Theater Oregon, The Justice Symphony for the University of Michigan, Buh-roke for the Portland Baroque Orchestra and String Quartet No. 1, Neo-Soul for All Classical Portland and On-Site Opera. His piece 1619 was part of On Site Opera's presentation “What Lies Beneath.”
His large work An African American Requiem premiered in 2022 in partnership with Resonance Ensemble and the Oregon Symphony, with subsequent performances at the Kennedy Center. I Said What I Said for Imani Winds, co-commissioned by Anima Mundi Productions, Chamber Music Northwest and The Oregon Bach Festival, also premiered in 2022. His second opera, Holy Ground, premiered in 2022 at the Glimmerglass Festival. Future commissions include world premieres productions in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
In his career as a singer, he recently his Metropolitan Opera debut in the Grammy Award-winning production of Porgy and Bess as the Undertaker and performed the Immigration Officer in Seattle Opera’s filmed production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight. Other recent appearances include Angelotti in Tosca with Portland Opera, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with the Reno Symphony, the title role of Quamino in the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Quamino’s Map with Chicago Opera Theatre, William Still in Paul Moravec's Sanctuary Road with the Oakland Symphony. He was the bass soloist in Darrell Grant's chamber opera Sanctuaries with Third Angle New Music and in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Richmond Symphony.
He is the Interim Music Director & Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera as well as Artistic Advisor for the award-winning vocal ensemble Resonance Ensemble.
He is the co-author of the book Music in Context: An Examination of Western European Music Through a Sociopolitical Lens, available on Amazon, or directly from the publisher, Kendall Hunt.
Learn more at DamienGeterMusic.com.
