Damien Geter is 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. Opera Today praises his sound palette, which “is very much his own distinct voice, and invigoratingly fresh” while The News Tribune calls him “superb”. In addition to his vocal accomplishments, Geter serves as Interim Music Director and Artistic Advisor at Portland Opera, as well as the Artistic Advisor for Resonance Ensemble. He is also the Composer-in-Residence at the Richmond Symphony through the 2024-25 season.
In the 2023-2024 season, Geter portrays the role of abolitionist and historian William Still in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec’s oratorio Sanctuary Road, presented by Virginia Opera, and based on the writings of Still, who is credited with helping nearly 800 enslaved African Americans escape to freedom. He also joins Auburn Symphony Orchestra in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and Rembrandt Chamber Musicians in The Wayfarer’s Melodies: A Musical Journey, singing the John Ireland Songs of a Wayfarer cycle.
Last season’s performance credits featured the bass-baritone as Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden with Hawaii Opera Theatre, plus concert credits entailing Handel’s Messiah with North Carolina Symphony and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Fresno Philharmonic.
Recent season highlights include Geter’s Metropolitan Opera debut in the Grammy award-winning production of Porgy and Bess as the Undertaker. He performed 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; and as Sam in Reno Symphony’s Voices of a Nation: Trouble in Tahiti. In concert, Geter performed as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Richmond Symphony and in the role of William Still in Sanctuary Road with the Oakland Symphony.
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; Brahms’, Verdi’s, Fauré’s, and Mozart’s 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 in the role of 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 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 also 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. 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.
Learn more at www.damiengetermusic.com.