An African American Requiem

“Geter takes full advantage of the wide-open emotional space offered by the form, offering completely different pathways through mourning, and making the “Requiem” very much his own creation. ”
— Washington Post, May 2022

Orchestra (3.3.2.2/4.4.3.1/Timp, Perc/Str), SATB Choir, SATB Quartet - 80'

Commissioned by Resonance Ensemble, 2019

Read Foreword by Aminata R. Sei

An African American Requiem is a twenty-movement work based on the traditional Latin requiem liturgy infusing spirituals and modern declarations relating to racial violence against African Americans, as well as a setting of Ida B. Wells’s speech Lynching is Color Line Murder.

Agnus Dei from 'An African American Requiem'
Composed by Damien Geter, Performed by Laude, Dave Harris, director
 
 
“Damien Geter was born to write this masterpiece, and it will change how we show up in the world. ”
— Aminata R. Sei (Foreward from An African American Requiem)