Geter’s Homecoming performance is an ode to the many Black lives lost to racial violence
Washington, D.C. (March 22, 2022) — The Choral Arts Society of Washington is honored to announce the East Coast premiere and recording of composer Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem with Oregon’s Resonance Ensemble. The concert will take place on Monday, May 23, 2022 at The Kennedy Center. The piece, which takes inspiration from traditional Latin requiem texts, has been in the works for the last several years and is a bold and thought-provoking musical response to racial violence against African Americans in the United States.
“As a Black composer in today’s America, I feel like I've been writing this my entire life,” says Geter. “I was hoping there would be a time we wouldn’t need this piece, but I think we always will. I hope An African American Requiem leads to important action that effects change.”
Geter grew up in the South Chesterfield, Virginia area where his artistic style was molded and influenced as a Black male growing up in the rural South. He sees this performance at The Kennedy Center, in the nation’s capital a few hours north of his hometown, as a marked and important occasion, a homecoming for him to showcase classical music to the Black community, a segment of the population that has long been excluded from the genre.
The work is a 20-movement piece that memorializes Black American victims of lynching, hanging, and other racial violence perpetuated throughout our country’s history. The infusion of Black vernacular, spirituals, and modern declarations enhances the traditional Latin requiem used for the body of work. Listeners will experience a setting of Ida B. Wells’s speech “Lynching is Color-Line Murder”; the famous last words of Eric Garner, “I can’t breathe”; and spirituals like “There’s A Man Goin’ Round” and “Kumbaya.”
“It has been an honor and privilege to work with Damien Geter and Resonance Ensemble,” says Choral Arts Artistic Director Scott Tucker. “An African American Requiem has been in the works for a long time and we cannot wait to share it. Music has the power to awe, transform opinions, and evoke change. As we honor the lives of Black women, children, and men who have been killed senselessly in this country, we hope the audience is moved to start conversations about the disparities Black Americans continue to face.”
An African American Requiem was commissioned by Resonance Ensemble in 2017 and was originally set to premiere in April of 2020. Because of the pandemic shutdowns, the world premiere is now rescheduled for May 7, 2022, in Portland, OR at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
“When we commissioned An African American Requiem, we had no idea the path we were about to embark on,” explains Resonance’s Artistic Director Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon. “Damien’s work is extraordinary and moving, and it’s exciting to see how audiences, community partners, and arts organizations across the country are coming together to watch his vision come to life. After the world premiere on May 7 in Portland, Oregon, it’s exciting to be able to perform it again so soon in the East Coast premiere. We are grateful for this incredible collaboration with Choral Arts as we perform and record Damien’s work at the Kennedy Center together.”
The East Coast premiere will feature the Choral Arts Symphonic Chorus with Artistic Director Scott Tucker, Resonance Ensemble with Artistic Director FitzGibbon, and NEWorks Chorus and Philharmonic Orchestra.
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