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Biography
“Possessed of a rolling, resonant voice even at the lowest register,” Damien Geter is an acclaimed bass-baritone, actor, and composer whose credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen.
He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the Grammy award-winning production of Porgy and Bess as the Undertaker, and most recently, performed the Immigration Officer in Seattle Opera’s filmed production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight, (April 2021. This season, he returns to Portland Opera as Angelotti in Tosca, performs 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 Sanctuary Road with the Oakland Symphony, the Bass Soloist in Sanctuaries, a chamber opera by Darrell Grant, with Third Angle New Music, and the bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the Richmond Symphony.
Damien is also an acclaimed composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice. Damien’s growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, orchestral, and now full operatic works. Some recent highlights include commissions Cantata for a Hopeful Tomorrow for The Washington Chorus with subsequent performances this fall 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 also appeared with On Site Opera this past fall as part of their presentation “What Lies Beneath.”
His large work, An African American Requiem, will premiere in Spring 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, will premiere in 2022. Damien also looks forward to the premiere of his second opera, Holy Ground, at the Glimmerglass Festival. Future commissions include World Premiere productions in 2022, 2024, and 2025.
Previous operatic engagements have included the Four Villains in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Pacific Northwest Opera, Angelotti in Tosca with Eugene Opera, and Colline in Puccini’s La bohème with Tacoma Opera and Vashon Opera. With Seattle Opera he has performed there as the Undertaken in Porgy and Bess and the Colonel in Zach Redler’s new chamber opera The Falling and the Rising. A favorite of Portland Opera, he has appeared as Dr. Grenville in La traviata, Alcindoro in La bohème, Bass Slave in David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field as well as a soloist for his Little Match Girl Passion.
A highly sought recitalist and singer on the concert stage, Damien’s repertoire includes Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Brahms’ Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Mozart’s Mass in C, Bach’s Cantata No. 3, Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.
Damien made his TV debut in the role of John Sacks on NBC’s Grimm. He was also seen in Netflix’s Trinkets which aired in spring of 2019. Musical theatre credits include Kevin Rosario in Lin Manuel-Miranda’s In the Heights, and Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar.
Damien is an alum of the Austrian American Mozart Festival, as well as the Aspen Opera Center. He was a semi-finalist for the Irma Cooper Vocal Competition. In 2012, he toured with the prestigious American Spiritual Ensemble, a group that helps to promote the preservation of the American art form – the spiritual.
He is the owner of DG Music, Sans Fear Publishing.
Damien currently serves as the Interim Music Director & Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera as well as Artistic Advisor for the award-winning vocal ensemble Resonance Ensemble.
The book he co-authored, Music in Context: An Examination of Western European Music Through a Sociopolitical Lens is available on Amazon, or directly from the publisher, Kendall Hunt.
Productions
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Artist Information
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