Damien Geter

Damien Geter (born 1980) is an American composer, bass-baritone, and conductor. He is the Music Director of Portland Opera and the Composer-in-Residence for the Richmond Symphony. Geter is known for such large-scale classical works as An African American Requiem (2022) and the operas American Apollo (2024) and Loving v. Virginia (2025). Early life and education Geter was born in Petersburg, Virginia, and raised in Chesterfield County, Virginia. He grew up in a musical family; his mother and grandmother were active in church music, which influenced his early musical development. He subsequently earned a Master of Music in Conducting from Indiana State University in 2004. Career Composition Geter’s compositions have received acclaim for their fusion of classical forms with styles from the Black diaspora. His choral-orchestral work, An African American Requiem, premiered in May 2022. Commissioned by the Resonance Ensemble, the work is a setting of the traditional Latin Requiem mass integrated with spirituals and texts related to racial violence in the United States, including the last words of Eric Garner and a speech by Ida B. Wells. The Washington Post reviewed the East Coast premie