Praise for Damien

2025

“music is vibrant […] draws on bluegrass, pop and jazz music to construct a backdrop that is lively and thrilling […] The earlier scenes feature easygoing bluegrass-style accompaniment while later scenes in Washington, with its crowded environs, are accompanied by busier jazz percussion. Following the performance in Northern Virginia, the packed house at George Mason University gave the production a well-deserved standing ovation. […] Loving v. Virginia is timely and serious, and deserves to be seen. […] The success of the work, one hopes, will encourage further productions and performances.” —WSWS, May 2025

“Geter’s colorful score [for Loving v. Virginia] effectively conveys the opposition between the Lovings’ love of home and their interactions with the judicial system. Violins are omnipresent in opera, but this was the first time I heard a fiddle in an opera. Melodies inspired by country and bluegrass traditions of rural Virginia evoke the Lovings’ hometown […] Lush swells of strings with echoes of Puccini illustrate the Lovings’ romance and contrast with more minimalist moments. A Morse code motif symbolic of “trouble” recurs throughout the opera […] Particularly potent sections include Geter’s musical characterization of government bureaucracy in the form of an earworm melody […] and the creepy soundscape of Mildred Loving’s solitary confinement in Act I, replete with drips and other mysterious jail sounds. Geter and Murphy Moo’s most revelatory innovation is their decision to personify the law as a character of sorts in the opera. An eight-person Law Chorus sings […] in a robotic monotone, syllable by syllable. Geter’s rigid composition for these choristers is as inflexible as the black and white letter of the law. The striking contrast of this cold, essentially inhuman theme with the warmer themes representing the Lovings drives home the injustice of the state’s assertion of control over their private lives. Geter is likely the first composer to score an opera for gavel as percussion. It may seem a little on the nose, perhaps, but the instrumentation is moving and recalls Gilda’s determined knocks on Sparafucile’s door in the dénouement of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Geter’s gavel provides an equally foreboding reminder of fate.” —Parterre Box, May 2025

“a brilliant up-and-coming composer [...] Damien Geter was so thoughtful in his composing—his score [for Loving v. Virginia] could be played on its own as an orchestral work” —Denyce Graves for UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, May 2025

"This is an exceptional opera that deserves and needs to be seen. […] Composer Damien Geter’s music was beautifully played by 51 members of the Richmond Symphony led by Conductor Adam Turner, foreshadowing and reflecting mood, emphasizing emotions, adding embellishing scenes with beauty. […] The melodic music had modern elements that helped connect with the story, including an electric guitar in the mix, and marvelously-used sections of the orchestra in expressive ways. […] Having the music playing and maintaining the narrative flow through on-stage scene changes was brilliant. I offer no criticisms [...] I will long remember Loving v. Virginia and recommend it without reservation; I expect it to be played many more times around the country, and given its universality, around the globe. […] Composer Geter and librettist Moo chose to focus on the human elements regardless of race, the love of home, of children and family, and the enduring love of life mates, on what it means to be human, and what we need as humans - the freedom to be who we are. The opera successfully brought home that message in a way that was felt. The audience on Sunday was quick to its feet to applaud after the performance was over, with shouts of approval and appreciation.” —OperaGene, May 2025

“Geter’s scoring for the law chorus, and for the scenes in which the Lovings are brought into the local court, emphasizes rat-a-tat Morse code–like motifs, punctuated by loud gavel bangs. […] Geter’s music […] paint[s] a searing picture of Richard’s frustration at his powerlessness to do so. The music makes articulate the feelings of someone who is explicitly a man of few words. […] The Richmond Symphony, under the direction of Adam Turner, was excellent in its playing of the highly varied requirements of Geter’s score. […] By showing what legal constraints on the lives and families of disfavored minorities mean in human terms, through the emotionally compelling medium of opera, the creators and performers of Loving v. Virginia not only delivered a touching love story and a powerful history lesson but also offered a cautionary note about the continuing presence of societal bias and legal thinking that would deprive loving couples of their ability to make a peaceful home together.” —DC Theater Arts, May 2025

“Outstanding new opera, “Loving v. Virginia,” makes a moving debut […] this full-length work proved to be one of the most successful new operas of the decade. […] Loving is the second opera for Damien Geter, the Virginia-born composer who is also an operatic baritone and interim music director of Portland Opera. Geter’s major oratorio An African American Requiem, performed by Choral Arts Society of Washington in 2022, demonstrated both his dramatic acumen and his skill in writing for voices. As in that work, Geter has woven music in vernacular styles—blues, rock, and spirituals—into this score yet in ways that felt organic and logical. […] Geter’s score alternated between neo-romantic lush harmony and scoring and the pulsating rhythms of minimalism, mainly for transitions and active choral scenes. Geter chose to represent the impersonal machine of the law with a smaller semi-chorus, reciting legal cases and statutes in a unison or octave monotone.” —Washington Classical Review, May 2025

“Geter and Murphy Moo’s new work [Loving v. Virginia] is a stunning achievement […] Geter’s light-handed score (the material is heavy enough) features wafts of Scots-Irish fiddle tunes, the blues and a percussionist pounding wood to match a judge’s pounding his bench. […] the heart of a potentially lasting work is here and beating” —Daily Press, April 2025

“Damien Geter is a powerhouse in the pit—a true renaissance man whose guidance as a conductor is as authoritative as it is empathetic. As a composer and singer himself, he brings a deep sensitivity to our needs, helping us navigate the immense vocal and emotional demands of the score. His presence is warm, powerful, and reassuring—few wield the baton with such a balance of precision and care.” —Robert Wesley Mason for Operawire, March 2025

“The program closed with another extended dramatic scene, “Amanirenas” by Damien Geter on a text by Lorene Cary [..] Geter’s explosive vocal writing” —Washington Classical Review, March 2025

2024

“the festival’s showpiece—the premiere of American Apollo by the hot young composer Damien Geter […] Geter’s music is quite beautiful and emotionally driven. There is some particularly lovely writing for strings and an interesting use of piano—particularly in the quotation of Reynaldo Hahn’s ‘À Chloris’, which is movingly utilized as a recurring love theme. […] American Apollo is an important addition to the canon” —Opera, October 2024 issue

“Geter, himself a bass-baritone, writes beautifully for voices and elegantly for orchestra. His “Apollo” score fuses Coplandesque Americana, ostinato-driven minimalism, and languid blues. [...] Geter creates a glistening atmosphere of expectation and yearning.” —The New Yorker, July 2024

“One of the most impactful things a work can do is give visibility to an erased, hidden or forgotten figure, and do so with dignity and humanity. A collaboration between composer Damien Geter and librettist Lila Palmer, American Apollo’s world premier at Des Moines Metro Opera, did precisely that. […] Geter’s orchestration creates a kaleidoscopic ‘American Impressionism’, with borrowings from other genres of the time, creating a diverse palate to accommodate the vivid characters. […] As the opera transitioned into the war years the longing of the melodic lines are punctuated by a percussive drive under the glistening tones - at times tender, at times brutal, led expressively by David Neely. […] A theme throughout is that even in a warring world, beauty is a need - this work is testament to that, that art should challenge us, give us a clearer view of the world around us, and is absolutely necessary.” —Opera Now, July 2024

“Geter’s sound palette and approach is very much his own distinct amalgamated voice, and most often, invigoratingly fresh. […] Under Maestro Neely’s leadership Mr. Geter’s musical intentions and motivic inventions were served up with loving gusto and high level musicianship by a twenty-five piece chamber orchestra that made the strongest case possible for this newly minted work. […] There is no question that American Apollo has legs and crosses the finish line. […] significant achievement […] The whole project resonated with artistic excellence, important social commentary, awesome commitment, and abundant community pride in this eventful World Premiere. […] It is a testament to the power of the message of love and inclusion, and the quality of the talent involved, that when the stage lights dimmed at the end of the performance, the SRO audience rose as one in the dark, and didn’t wait a moment to launch into a teary-eyed roar of approval that grew into a prolonged, emotional ovation. An “occasion,” indeed, and one to be treasured.” —Opera Today, July 2024

“[American Apollo’s] most affecting moments revolve around the melding of artistic inspiration and growing love in Sargent’s studio. They include Sargent’s first caressing aria (“Magnificent. Extraordinary.”), about how McKeller’s body and modeling skill have moved him, and later, a tender duet of mutual seduction as Sargent tells the stories of the gods and McKeller finds them in his poses. Mr. Geter’s lyrical music is at its strongest here; he also integrates Reynaldo Hahn’s perfumed chanson “À Chloris,” which the two men sing together, as a love motif.” —Wall Street Journal, July 2024

“Geter’s piece is a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C Minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. OBF instituted a plan to commission orchestral transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s keyboard works, and Geter’s—the multi-talented composer and bass-baritone has Portland roots as artistic advisor to Portland Opera and the Resonance Ensemble—was the first. This nine-minute piece used OBF’s 100-strong Modern Orchestra to produce bold jazz-infused sounds that put even more power into the Bach repertoire.” —Oregon Arts Watch, July 2024

“The work [COTTON] was composed by the prolific Damien Geter” —New York Amsterdam News, April 2024

“The cast of five soloists was anchored by bass-baritone Damien Geter who portrayed William Still with excellent vocals, displaying gravity and determination to “write, record, chronicle”.” —OperaGene, February 2024

“Damien Geter embodies the role of William Still. It is always a challenge to be the “still” figure at the center of a drama, when everything and everyone swirls around you so colorfully. His commanding presence and voice full of bass-baritone gravitas made me believe his character fully.” —DC Theater Arts, February 2024

“Leading off as the documentarian, William Still was reenacted by baritone Damien Geter in his VOA (Main Stage) debut. His commanding presence was transformative. His disciplined perseverance, haunting, as he commands himself to record first hand the harsh realities of slavery and escape of those enslaved, “Write it down.”” —The New Journal & Guide, February 2024

2023

“The Blacknificent 7’s newest offerings proved its most memorable. Geter’s sumptuous Annunciation (2022)—given vigorous life by tenor Russell Thomas—sets a poem by librettist Joshua Banbury that reimagines the Biblical annunciation as an intimate encounter between two men. It’s the sexiest thing to hit the Orchestra Hall stage in recent memory: Banbury’s seven-verse text is unsparing (“he moved in me / the gold chain dangled on my face”), and Geter’s all-string setting intoxicating. Each verse segues unbroken into the next, the shifts signaled by changes in tempo and instrument pairings. The seventh verse ends in an echo of the first, with string harmonics, before vanishing in a mystical, harp-laced flourish. […] Annunciation’s breathless eroticism. […] Here’s to hearing more from the Blacknificent 7—and soon.” —Musical America, December 2023

“composer-performers Damien Geter and Jasmine Barnes also got to display their versatility in their own works and pieces by their colleagues […] The work that came off most successfully was Geter’s Annunciation (2022), a song cycle of seven vignettes derived from an explicitly homoerotic text by Joshua Banbury, subtitled “Visions from a Fever Dream.” […] Passions soon overtake text and music, the explicit carnality of Geter’s lyrical declamation buoyed by ecstatic instrumental lines […] Geter’s firm bass-baritone was put to most effective use as one of two vocalists in Jasmine Barnes’ The United States Welcomes You (2023) […] both singers acquitted themselves wonderfully well” —Chicago Classical Review, December 2023

“This was not the last grooving pop-inspired selection of the evening, however. A string quartet from D-Composed rounded out the program with a celebration of music by contemporary black composers, tipping off with “Bop,” a movement from composer-baritone extraordinaire Damien Geter’s Neo-Soul quartet. The players locked into the movement’s driving, asymmetrical groove from the first notes, over which Caitlin Edwards’ supple violin spun the expressive melody.” —Chicago Classical Review, September 2023

“It was the companion piece on the program, however, that captured my attention: the “Justice” Symphony by Damien Geter […] I went online and heard a complete performance of Geter’s 32-minute-long symphony […] and I was blown away. Yes, I told the publicist, set aside two tickets for me. I will go to Fresno. I want to be in that number for the live West Coast premiere, and I will make sure readers know about this great new composer and this fantastic big work that needs to be performed and heard all over the country and beyond. […] it’s never too late to sing Geter’s praises […] I am far from finished in my delight in discovering Damien Geter. I need to mention that he is also a splendid, cavernous bass-baritone, who sang that part in the Beethoven 9th on June 11—dressed in a dashing, fire-engine red suit with pegged pants” —People’s World, June 2023

“A new work for a full symphony and chorus, ‘An African-American Requiem’ was acclaimed last year at the Kennedy Center. Now the composer-conductor will lead its ‘red state’ premiere.” —Dallas Morning News, January 2023

“Damien Geter (whose “An African-American Requiem” knocked my socks clear off last year) returns with a new song cycle inspired by the work of photographer John E. Dowell.” —Washington Post, January 2023

Emphasis added