“African Queens” by Karen Slack, soprano–John R. Stratton Visitor in Music

Lu wahe’e
Wu la aszre na zhi
whiye lu we
Lu wah’e
E kweli yenga na
Na lute ya
Nanga na ka ma

Hear my lament
I’ve never cried
Like this before
Hear my lament
This great loss
Saddens me
And startles me

Alisalam aleka
Fa, duniy’Allah
Allah sum i’llahi
Fa, duniya, lon man di
Allah sum ilahi
Allah, akubar!
E, Kuba jama le
Tambita walasum

Peace be upon you
Behold, God’s universe 
Of God, the Merciful 
God’s universe is beyond
Understanding, Merciful God
Great God
Grand designs, perpetual,
And forever

Come here, likkle one
Come an ress your head
"It won't be long now,"
So di baaba said.

You look a likkle lost, baby
But you will find your way.
No worry if yu yeye dem a droop so,
Jus lissin what you Nanny seh:

Come here likkle one
Come an ress your head
"It won't be long now,"
So di baaba said.

So, tarry a while pon di big rock stone
if you legdem a cramp an strain.
Mi know yu chess a go toogatoomtoom
but you Nanny soon tek weh di pain.

Come here likkle one
Come an ress your head
"It won't be long now,"
So di baaba said.

Here you are
Time to sleep now,
Close those wide and fearful eyes.
As yu troat close up
and yu lips grow numb,
I'll wipe away the blood and you'll realize:
The end is drawing nigh, enslaver.
You stole my sister from my arms, colonizer,
And stole the land from my people, abuser,
And beat my brother black and red, fertilizer,
And you will reap what you've sown, likkle one.

Good night, likkle one.
It won’t be long now…

WATCHING

Great Woman of the Black Land 
Watching Amanirenas 
Amon’s Child 
Conquering, searing gold in a holy hand 
Knowing Amanirenas 
Mother of a Million Suns 
Shining in the shadowed gaze of a Red Wolf 
Who bites the heel of a Lioness 
Yet cannot taste her blood 

Great Woman of the Valley
One-eyed Amanirenas 
Amon’s Child 
Sleeping, weeping salt in a misty mirror 
Glistening Amanirenas 
Victor of a Hundred Bloods 
Wading in the earthen glaze of Nahal’s water 
Who drowns the angbreast of Amon’s child, 
Yet cannot take her heart 

Amanirenas 

Damien Geter
Text by Lorene Cary

Program Note

When Karen approached the Blacknificent 7 to be a part of the African Queens project, I knew immediately that my subject would be the great ruler, Amanirenas, the “One Eyed African Queen,” ruler of the kingdom of Kush. Little is known about her life, but perhaps what she is most well known for was defeating Caesar in his failed attempt to conquer Kush. 

The music’s contrasting phrases highlight two sides of Amanirenas; the fierce warrior, and the gentle mother which is symbolic of the everyday queens I have known throughout my life.

—Damien Geter

Text

No, Daughter! No!
Do not take up my sword.
Do not strap on my shield.

Patience...

Rome marched into Kush,
Bringing death:
To your father,
Your brother,
Our soldiers,
Our women,
Our children,
Our cattle and grain.

And I cut of the head
Of their statue,
Caesar’s head,
And buried it
Under the door
To my temple.

Go step on it
When you pray.

But do not take up
My sword.

Patience...

This is not Egypt
And I am not Cleopatra.
I am Amanirenas.
I will not hold
Death to my breast
And give my people
Over to Rome.

No!

We steal into their stinking camps.
Night after night
And as they
Dream of our blood,
We slit their throats -
And choke on their own.

Patience -

I have sent
Golden arrows to
Caesar and said:
“If you want peace, take these with my blessing;
If you want war, you will need them.”

Rome has scooped out my eye.
But the eye that is left
Can see the future:
We will live!
Queen-mother and queen,
Qora and kandake,
Ruling Kush,
Free of Rome!!

And your daughter
And hers
And hers,
And hers!

Do not take up my sword.
Do not strap on my shield.

Patience!

I will give you a crown!

Pronunciation Note: Qore (KOOR-ray) and Kandake (KUN-duh-kay)

Amanirenas, Kush’s Great Woman/Queen/ Kandake, recovers from wounds from her in a night raid, and speaks to her daughter, who is preparing to follow her dead father and brother and wounded mother into battle against the Romans.

BIOGRAPHIES

Karen Slack

Known for performances that “ripped the audience’s hearts out” (Opera News), Karen Slack is “not only one of the nation's most celebrated sopranos, but a leading voice in changing and making spaces in classical music” (Trilloquy). A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, Slack is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra and Astral Artists, and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Highlights of Slack’s 2023-2024 season include her solo debut with the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall, and her debut as a guest artist with Chamber Music Detroit, where she will give masterclasses and perform two programs: her acclaimed solo recital Of Thee I Sing and a program alongside the Pacifica Quartet. She performs in two productions of Shawn Okpebholo’s Songs in Flight, returns to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, returns to Colombia for the Festival Internacional de Música Sacra Bogotá, and continues her collaboration with the Pacifica Quartet at the Denver Friends of Chamber Music.

Slack embarks upon an ambitious new recording project in collaboration with ONEComposer and pianist Michelle Cann, to be released later this season on Azica Records, and debuts her new commissioning project African Queens, an evening-length vocal recital of new art songs by acclaimed composers Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson.

Slack has amassed a body of work reflecting her dedication to premiering works by living composers, with particular focus on using her platform to elevate works by Black artists. In recent seasons, she premiered Songs in Flight at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, appeared in two separate world premieres by Hannibal Lokumbe with the Nashville Symphony and Oklahoma City Philharmonic; debuted Jasmine Barnes’ Songs of Paul with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; premiered Damien Geter’s Justice Symphony with the Fresno Symphony and The Washington Chorus; and made her Houston Grand Opera debut in the premiere of Joel Thompson and Andrea Davis Pinkney's A Snowy Day.

When the pandemic limited live performances, Slack was featured in digital performances with Houston Grand Opera, Madison Opera, and Minnesota Opera; starred in a new production of Driving While Black, presented by UrbanArias; and launched a digital talk show, #kikikonversations. She co-created and performed in #saytheirnames – Women of the Movement, a film recital and production in partnership with Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest, performed in recital for Opera Philadelphia. Appearing alongside actor/narrator Liev Schreiber, she was the featured vocalist in Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Speaking Truth to Power, hosted on Idagio.

She has performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Scottish Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Austin Opera, New Orleans Opera, Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Madison Opera, and Arizona Opera, among others. She has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Slack made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s Healing Tones with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

A native Philadelphian, Slack is a graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, as well as the Adler Fellowship and the Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera.

For more information, please visit www.sopranokarenslack.com

Kevin Miller

American pianist and collaborator Kevin J. Miller is acclaimed for his dynamically artful performances. Recent collaborations include recitals with international tenor Lawrence Brownlee at Carnegie Hall and Houston Grand Opera, countertenor John Holiday at the Kennedy Center and The Barbican in London, Joseph Calleja and Nadine Sierra at the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as an appearance with Mr. Calleja on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.  Mr. Miller prepared soprano Jessye Norman for performances of Laura Karpman’s production of Ask Your Mama, which was performed at Carnegie Hall.  He also collaborated with the acclaimed countertenor, David Daniels, in a recital at the Glimmerglass Festival.  He can be heard on piano on the recording Been in da Storm So Long, which features baritone Kenneth Overton.

This New York native has been on the fast track to success since his days as a student at the Boys Choir of Harlem.  Beginning his musical studies at the age of 8, Mr. Miller was a featured soprano soloist - most notably in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Lake George Opera Association’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  While a student at the Boys Choir of Harlem, he studied piano with the late conductor and pianist Warren Wilson. It was also during these years that Mr. Miller began his work as an accompanist, having accompanied the choir on its tours of Europe, Israel, Austria, and Japan.

Mr. Miller studied at the Mannes College of Music, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano.  He continued his studies at the University of Michigan School of Music where he received both a Master of Music degree and the Artist Diploma in Collaborative Piano under the tutelage of Martin Katz.  

In addition to his formal studies, Mr Miller has been a participant in some of the country’s most prestigious festivals and young artist apprenticeships that include The Tanglewood Institute of Music, Aspen Summer Music Festival, The Cleveland Art Song Festival, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and the Glimmerglass Festival.  Upon completion of his apprenticeship at the Glimmerglass Festival, he was invited to serve as a vocal coach at the Glimmerglass Festival.

Dave Ragland

Dave Ragland is a four-time Emmy-nominated composer, conductor, vocalist, and educator based in Nashville, TN. Most recently, Ragland was named the First Place Winner of The Atlanta Opera’s 96-Hour Opera Composition Competition. He also received the 2022 Adams-Owens Composition Award by the African-American Art Song Alliance. Ragland has received the 2021 American Prize in Composition, two Telly Awards, and two Midsouth Regional EMMY nominations for his work as composer and audio engineer of Nashville Opera’s One Vote Won. 
Ragland is currently collaborating with Damon Davis, Ted Hearne, Alarm Will Sound, and Inversion Vocal Ensemble on Davis’ concept opera Ligeia Mare.

Ragland collaborated with librettist Mary McCallum to create the children’s opera Charlie and the Wolf for the Cedar Rapids Opera, and the educational opera Beatrice for Oregon’s Portland Opera. Additional composition credits include LA Opera, Washington National Opera, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Ballet, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Intersection Contemporary Ensemble, chatterbird, and the Alias Chamber Ensemble. Ragland was the 2020 Grady-Rayam Negro Spirituals Foundation composer-in-residence and a member of the inaugural cohort of composers for the National Teachers of Singing (NATS) Mentoring Program. Ragland is a proud member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Carlos Simon

Carlos Simon is a multi-faceted and highly sought-after GRAMMY-nominated composer and curator. The current Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Simon's work spans genres, taking great inspiration from liturgical texts, prose, poetry, and art.
The 2023/24 season sees premiere performances with San Diego Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, The Washington Chorus, and LA Master Chorale, following recent other commissions from the likes of Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, and New York Philharmonic. 
In September 2023, Simon released two albums on Decca. Together is a compilation of solo and chamber compositions and arrangements featuring Simon and guests such as J’Nai Bridges, Randall Goosby, Seth Parker Woods and Will Liverman. brea(d)th is a landmark work commissioned by Minnesota Orchestra and written in collaboration with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, which was written following George Floyd’s murder as a direct response to America’s unfulfilled promises and history of systemic oppression against Black Americans. His 2022 album, Requiem for the Enslaved, was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award. 
“If Simon has inherited anything from his lineage, it appears to be a desire to build bridges between worlds, and use music to illuminate them.” -Washington Post 
 

Jessie Nzinga Montgomery

Jessie Montgomery, Musical America's 2023 Composer of the Year, is a GRAMMY-nominated, acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator whose works are performed around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post), her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of twenty-first century American sound and experience.  In July 2021, she began a three-year appointment as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence.

Highlights of her 2022-2023 season include the world premieres of orchestral works for violinist Joshua Bell; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; a consortium led by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for New Music USA Amplifying Voices; a violin duo for CSO MusicNOW and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and new settings of various works by choreographer Donald Byrd for Nashville Ballet.

Montgomery has been recognized with many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation. She is currently visiting faculty at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, Bard College, and The New School, and has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization since 1999. Montgomery holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a doctoral candidate in music composition at Princeton University.  

For more information visit www.jessiemontgomery.com

Shawn Okpebholo

Storytelling is at the core of composer Shawn E. Okpebholo's music, be it chamber, symphonic, or operatic works. A Grammy nominee, Okpebholo's compositions are regularly performed around the globe to widespread acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. The Washington Post has described his compositions as 'fresh and new and fearless,' as well as 'devastatingly beautiful,' while The Guardian has praised his music as 'lyrical, complex, and singular.' Okpebholo's artistry has earned him numerous accolades, including awards from The Academy of Arts and Letters, American Prize in Composition, Chamber Music America, and the Barlow Endowment for the Arts. Collaborations with today's leading artists and ensembles, including Rhiannon Giddens, Lawrence Brownlee, J’Nai Bridges, Will Liverman, eighth blackbird, Copland House Ensemble, and the Chicago, Cincinnati, and Houston Symphony Orchestras, have led to performances in prestigious venues such as Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, the Lincoln, Kennedy, and Kimmel Centers, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as prominent music festivals, including Aspen, Ojai, Bowdoin, and the Oxford International Song Festival. Recently, Okpebholo completed a residency with the Chicago Opera Theater. Currently, he is Jonathan Blanchard Distinguished Professor of Composition at Wheaton College-Conservatory of Music and also serves as the Saykaly Garbulinska Composer-in-Residence with the Lexington Philharmonic. To experience more of Okpebholo’s story, please visit shawnokpebholo.com.

Jasmine Arielle Barnes

Emmy award winning composer, Jasmine Arielle Barnes, is a Baltimore native, Dallas based composer. Her music has been described as “refreshing..,engaging...,exciting” by San Francisco Classical Voice, "Beautifully lyrical" by The Telegraph (UK), and “the best possible blend of Billie Holiday and Claude Debussy” by Boston Globe. Barnes is managed by UIA talent, a resident artist for Opera Theater of Saint Louis (2023/24), American Lyric Theater (2021-23) , Chautauqua Opera (2021), and All Classical Portland (2021). She has been commissioned by numerous organizations such as NY Philharmonic and Juilliard Pre College, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, The Washington National Opera and The Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival and School, Apollo Chamber Players, Baltimore Choral Arts, CityMusic Cleveland, LyricFest Philadelphia, among others.

A steady rising composer, Barnes has written music for Lawrence Brownlee on album titled “Rising” and since, her art song “Peace” has been named a BMI favorite. Among other artists, she’s written for Will Liverman, Russell Thomas, Karen Slack, Leah Hawkins, and a host of other world class artists. A PBS documentary about her choral/orchestral song cycle titled “Portraits: Douglass and Tubman”, career, and relationship with Baltimore Choral Arts titled “Dreamer” earned her an Emmy in the 2023 Capital Emmy Awards. Barnes has had a busy year with premieres at Carnegie Hall,  LA opera, and Chicago Symphony among others within 2023, yet she still awaits premieres with Opera Theater St. Louis of her opera “On My Mind”, NY Philharmonic partnered with Juilliard, and American Composers Forum, an orchestral workshop of her opera “She Who Dared”, and many other premieres in 2024.

Joel Thompson

Joel Thompson is an Atlanta-based composer, conductor, pianist, and educator, best known for the choral work, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, which was premiered in November 2015 by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club and Dr. Eugene Rogers and won the 2018 American Prize for Choral Composition. In August 2021 he premiered another new work in Boulder at the Colorado Music Festival; the piece sets the writings of James Baldwin to music.

Thompson’s works have been performed by esteemed ensembles such as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Master Chorale, Los Angeles Master Chorale, EXIGENCE, and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Currently a doctoral student at the Yale School of Music, Thompson was also a 2017 post-graduate fellow in Arizona State University’s Ensemble Lab/Projecting All Voices Initiative and a composition fellow at the 2017 Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with composers Stephen Hartke and Christopher Theofanidis and won the 2017 Hermitage Prize.

Thompson taught at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta from 2015 to 2017, and also served as Director of Choral Studies and Assistant Professor of Music at Andrew College from 2013 to 2015. Thompson has a B.A. in Music and an M.M. in Choral Conducting, both from Emory University.

Damien Geter

Damien Geter is an acclaimed composer who infuses classical music with styles from the Black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice. His growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, orchestral, and full operatic works, with his compositions being praised for their “skillful vocal writing” (Wall Street Journal). He is Richmond Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence, Portland Opera’s Interim Music Director and Artistic Advisor, and Resonance Ensemble’s Artistic Advisor.

This season, Des Moines Metro Opera presents the full-length world premiere of American Apollo; Virginia Opera holds a workshop of Loving v. Virginia, co-commissioned by Virginia Opera and Richmond Symphony; Chicago Symphony Orchestra programs Annunciation; Richmond Symphony premieres a brand new work; and The Recording Inclusivity Initiative records String Quartet No. 1 “Neo-Soul”.

Last season, COTTON had its Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. premieres; Emmanuel Music performed his motet; Geter conducted his own piece, An African American Requiem (Fort Worth Opera); and led ABSENCE: Terence Blanchard (Portland Opera). In 2022 alone, he had six premieres: An African American Requiem (in partnership with Resonance Ensemble and Oregon Symphony); I Said What I Said for Imani Winds (Anima Mundi Productions, Chamber Music Northwest, and The Oregon Bach Festival co-commision); Holy Ground (Glimmerglass Opera); Elegy (American Guild of Organists); The Bronze Legacy (Chicago Symphony Orchestra); and American Apollo (chamber version for Des Moines Metro Opera). Geter is an alumnus of Austrian American Mozart Festival and Aspen Opera Center, was an Irma Cooper Vocal Competition finalist, and toured with American Spiritual Ensemble. He owns DG Music, Sans Fear Publishing. www.damiengetermusic.com.