DAMIEN GETER is an acclaimed American composer whose rapidly growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, orchestral, and full operatic works. He is also a celebrated bass-baritone – “amazing to listen to. Possessed of a rolling, resonant voice even at the lowest register” (Northwest Reverb) – whose varied credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen. Geter is Richmond Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence through 2026, and Composer-in-Residence for Fall 2025 at both Indiana State University’s Contemporary Music Festival and Ear Taxi Festival. He serves as Music Director for Portland Opera.
Praised by The New Yorker for writing “beautifully for voices and elegantly for orchestra,” his “emotionally driven” (Opera) compositions are widely hailed for their “skillful vocal writing” (Wall Street Journal). In the 2025-2026 season, Geter’s brand new opera, Delta King’s Blues, with a libretto by Jarrod Lee, will be premiered by IN Series in Washington, DC, and Baltimore. The first full opera commissioned by IN Series, it celebrates the legacy of legendary guitarist Robert Johnson with a “blues opera” that tells the Faustian story of the bargain he struck with the devil: selling his immortal soul to learn the language of the blues. Geter’s song Amanirenas, commissioned by soprano Karen Slack for her African Queens art song program, continues to tour nationally at the Portland and Piedmont Operas, as well as the Naples Philharmonic in its orchestral premiere. His song cycle COTTON will be performed by Justin Austin, J’Nai Bridges, and Laura Ward at La Jolla Music Society. Additionally, Richmond Symphony premieres his Loving v. Virginia Suite, the Chicago Philharmonic and Richmond Symphony present An African American Requiem, Ear Taxi Festival presents I Said What I Said, VocalEssence presents The Justice Symphony, and Fresno Philharmonic performs Sinfonia Americana.
As a conductor, Geter leads Portland Opera in Verdi’s Requiem, joins Symphony New Hampshire to lead their Holiday Pops concert, and conducts Redlands Symphony in works by Britten, Copeland, and Teresa Carreño.
Last season marked the world premiere of Geter’s critically acclaimed Loving v. Virginia, featuring a libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo, which concluded Virginia Opera’s 50th anniversary season. Based on the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving, the opera – hailed as “nothing short of a masterpiece” by Operawire and “one of the most successful new operas of the decade” by Washington Classical Review – was co-commissioned by Virginia Opera and Richmond Symphony, co-produced by Virginia Opera and Minnesota Opera. His commissioned song, Gentle lady, do not sing, was included on the Choral Scholars University College Dublin’s album, Music by James Joyce, Volume I (September 2024, Signum Classics). He conducted performances of Paul Moravec’s opera The Shining, based on Stephen King’s iconic novel, at Portland Opera, and Carmel Symphony Orchestra’s Opening Night Gala, America the Beautiful concert.
In the 2023-24 season, Des Moines Metro Opera presented the full-length world premiere of Geter’s opera, American Apollo, to critical acclaim. Opera Now proclaimed Geter’s orchestrations created “a kaleidoscopic ‘American Impressionism’, with borrowings from other genres of the time, creating a diverse palate to accommodate the vivid characters,” and Opera Today stated the composer’s “sound palette and approach is very much his own distinct amalgamated voice.”
Called “superb” by The News Tribune, DC Theater Arts praises his “commanding presence and voice full of bass-baritone gravitas”. Recent season highlights include: his Metropolitan Opera debut in the GRAMMY® award-winning production of Porgy and Bess as the Undertaker; portraying abolitionist and historian William Still to great critical acclaim in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec’s oratorio Sanctuary Road with Virginia Opera and Oakland Symphony; the title role of Quamino in the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Quamino’s Map with Chicago Opera Theatre; as Angelotti in Tosca with the Portland and Eugene Operas; as Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden with Hawaii Opera Theatre; as Sam in Reno Symphony’s Voices of a Nation: Trouble in Tahiti; as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Richmond Symphony and Fresno Philharmonic; Handel’s Messiah with North Carolina Symphony; joining Auburn Symphony Orchestra in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony; performing with Rembrandt Chamber Musicians in The Wayfarer’s Melodies: A Musical Journey, singing the John Ireland Songs of a Wayfarer cycle.
Additional operatic engagements have included portrayals of the Four Villains in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Pacific Northwest Opera, and Colline in La bohème with the Tacoma and Vashon Operas. He has sung the Undertaker in Porgy and Bess and the Colonel in Zach Redler’s chamber opera The Falling and the Rising at Seattle Opera. A frequent favorite with Portland Opera, he has appeared as Dr. Grenville in La traviata, Alcindoro in La bohème, the Bass Slave in David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, as well as a soloist for Little Match Girl Passion, also by Lang. A highly sought-after recitalist and singer on the concert stage, Geter’s repertoire includes Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; the Brahms, Verdi, Fauré, and Mozart Requiems; Mozart’s Mass in C; Bach’s Cantata No. 3; Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem; and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.
On television, Geter made his TV debut as John Sacks on NBC’s Grimm and was seen in Netflix’s Trinkets. Musical theater credits include Kevin Rosario in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights and Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar.
Geter has been recognized by the Library of Virginia with its honorary Patron of Letters degree, was honored at the 2025 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History awards presented by Dominion Energy and the Library of Virginia, and was selected as a 2025 BRAVO! honoree by the Chesterfield Education Foundation.
He is an alumnus of the Austrian American Mozart Festival and the Aspen Opera Center, and was a semifinalist for the Irma Cooper Vocal Competition. He toured with the prestigious American Spiritual Ensemble, a group that helps promote preserving the American art form of the spiritual.
Damien Geter hosts the podcast ARTillery and is the owner of DG Music, Sans Fear Publishing. Music in Context: An Examination of Western European Music Through a Sociopolitical Lens, the book he co-authored, is available on Amazon or directly from the publisher, Kendall Hunt.