World Premiere: Invictus & An African American Requiem

Chicago Philharmonic Presents:

World Premiere: Invictus & An African American Requiem

On October 18, Chicago Philharmonic and Ear Taxi Festival present the Midwest Premiere of Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem, a monumental work never before performed in Chicago. Nearly 200 musicians, including the Apollo Chorus of Chicago and four soloists, will bring this powerful piece to life. Also presented is the World Premiere of Stacy Garrop’s first piano concerto Invictus, performed by multi-Grammy-nominated pianist Marta Aznavoorian.

Chicago Philharmonic
Scott Speck Conductor
Apollo Chorus, directed by Stephen Alltop

Marta Aznavoorian Piano
Tiana Sorenson Soprano
Leah Dexter Mezzo-Soprano
Cameo Humes Tenor
Khary Laurent Bass

Date: Saturday, October 18, 2025
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Harris Theater for Music and Dance – Chicago, IL

Program:

Midwest Premiere

An African American Requiem (2018–19, premiered 2022) – Damien Geter
Apollo Chorus, directed by Stephen Alltop
Tiana Sorenson Soprano
Leah Dexter Mezzo-Soprano
Cameo Humes Tenor
Khary Laurent Bass

An African American Requiem is a 90 minute 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’ speech Lynching is Color Line Murder.

Damien Geter is an acclaimed American composer and bass‑baritone who is known for weaving classical forms with musical traditions of the Black diaspora. Geter was recently honored with the Library of Virginia’s Patron of Letters Award, the state’s highest recognition for contributions to the arts and humanities.

Damien Geter’s voice as a composer is shaping the national conversation, and now Chicago audiences have the chance to experience one of his most profound, large-scale pieces.

Watch the video below for a preview, with insight from Damien Geter and Terell Johnson:

This is more than a concert. It’s a cultural moment for Chicago. Watch the video below to see a call to rally, and a performance from soprano Tiana Sorenson, at the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

World Premiere

Invictus (2025) – Stacy Garrop
Marta Aznavoorian Piano

Concerto for piano and orchestra:

I. Out of the night that covers me,
II. Black as the pit from pole to pole,
III. I thank whatever gods may be
IV. For my unconquerable soul.

Invictus (2025) by Stacy Garrop is a powerful new piano concerto inspired by William Ernest Henley’s poem of the same name, depicting resilience and determination. Through bold orchestration and virtuosic piano passages written for internationally acclaimed pianist Marta Aznavoorian, the piece captures the unbreakable human spirit in the face of adversity.

Co-Commissioned by Marta Aznavoorian, pianist, and the American Composers Forum.
American Composers Forum support is made possible by The Thelma E. Hunter Fund.

This concert is made possible by:

Eric Wassenaar and Khrystyna Savchuk, MD

Additional support is provided by:

Lori Ashikawa
Jemia Cunningham-Elder
Zantraquilla Madkins
Stetson Marshall
Harris Theater for Music and Dance

About Chicago Philharmonic

Founded in 1989 by musicians of the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic Society is dedicated to reimagining the orchestra concert experience. With nearly 200 musician members and a unique system of musician governance, Chicago Philharmonic is recognized as one of the most versatile, innovative, and ambitious orchestras in the country.

Chicago Philharmonic proudly collaborates with the world’s greatest artists across multiple genres. Past partnerships include Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, Joshua Bell, Kishi Bashi, The Joffrey Ballet, English National Ballet, Tank and the Bangas, William Basinski, American Ballet Theatre, Ryan Speedo Green, and more.

Since Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 honoree Terell Johnson became Executive Director in 2021, the orchestra has continued to expand its artistic reach and push the boundaries of symphonic performance. Notable recent milestones include a history-making debut at Lollapalooza as the first orchestra to perform at the festival, a sold-out Carnegie Hall debut with Sleeping At Last, and a world premiere tribute to Whitney Houston at Ravinia Festival. From groundbreaking live film concerts to dynamic collaborations with today’s most exciting artists, Chicago Philharmonic remains at the forefront of innovation and inclusion in the city’s performing arts landscape.

Learn more at www.chicagophil.org.

About Scott Speck, Principal Conductor

With recent performances in London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, Scott Speck has inspired international acclaim as a conductor of passion, intelligence, and winning personality. Scott Speck was named Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Chicago Philharmonic in June of 2013 and has been Music Director of the Joffrey Ballet since 2010. He has become a frequent guest for the Chicago Symphony’s family concerts. His work with Chicago Philharmonic earned him the award “2021 Conductor of the Year” from the Illinois Council of Orchestras.

Scott Speck is the co-author of two of the world’s bestselling books on classical music, Classical Music for Dummies and Opera for Dummies. These books have received stellar reviews in both national and international press, have garnered enthusiastic endorsements from major American orchestras, and have been translated into twenty languages. His third book in the series, Ballet for Dummies, was released to great acclaim as well. For more information visit www.scottspeck.org.

About Marta Aznavoorian, Pianist

“A Pianist of exceptionally finished technique and purity of musical impulse” (Boston Globe)

Armenian-American pianist Marta Aznavoorian is known for her inspiringly spirited playing and vast emotional reach. The multi-Grammy-nominated artist has performed to critical acclaim throughout the world as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She made her professional debut at the age of 13, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, K. 491 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the invitation of Sir George Solti. She then went on to engage with orchestras throughout the United States and abroad, including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Boston Pops, and Chicago Symphony.

Aznavoorian has received numerous awards and accolades, including First Prize in the Stravinsky International Competition and a special prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned contemporary work. As a recipient of the Level 1 award in the National Foundation of the Arts talent search, she became a Presidential Scholar and was invited to the White House, where she met former President George H.W. Bush and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Known for her expressive energy and originality, Aznavoorian has recorded extensively for Naxos, Warner Classics, and Erato, and has just released her seventh album under Cedille Records.

Aznavoorian is a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Lincoln Trio, which Fanfare Magazine has labeled as the “hottest trio in the business,” earning several Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations. She also performs extensively with violinist Stefan Milenkovich and her sister, cellist Ani Aznavoorian. The Aznavoorian Sister Duo released their debut album in 2022, Veiled Mountain: Gems from Armenia, under Cedille Records. A champion of contemporary music, she has recorded and premiered works by some of the world’s leading composers, including William Bolcom, Osvaldo Golijov, Augusta Read Thomas, Shulamit Ran, Joan Tower, and Jennifer Higdon, among others. She is set to premiere and record a commissioned piano concerto written for her by Stacy Garrop on October 25, in collaboration with Cedille Records and the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra.

A student of the renowned Menahem Pressler, Aznavoorian earned her Bachelor’s Degree and Artist Diploma from Indiana University and her Master’s Degree from the New England Conservatory. As a dedicated educator and philanthropist, she teaches lessons and masterclasses across the United States and abroad. She has received several awards, including the Alumni Legends Standing Ovation Award for her humanitarian work in her native city of Chicago. Aznavoorian serves as a faculty member and Keyboard Coordinator at DePaul University and is an Artist-in-Residence at the Music Institute of Chicago.

Committed to creating training pathways for students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, Aznavoorian’s new foundation, Keynote Productions, aims to provide funding and support to help young musicians achieve their full potential. Marta Aznavoorian is a Steinway Artist.

For more information, please visit her website at www.martaaznavoorian.com.

About Stacy Garrop, Composer

Dr. Stacy Garrop is an award-winning, internationally recognized freelance composer and lecturer whose music is centered on dramatic and lyrical storytelling. Her catalog covers a wide range of genres, with works for orchestra, opera, oratorio, wind ensemble, choir, art song, and various sized chamber ensembles. Dr. Garrop has received numerous awards and grants including an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fromm Music Foundation Grant, Barlow Prize, and three Barlow Endowment commissions. Notable commissions include Forging Steel for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Battle for the Ballot for the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Goddess Triptych for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berko’s Journey for the Omaha Symphony, Forged by the Sea for the U.S. Navy Band, The Transformation of Jane Doe for Chicago Opera Theater, In a House Besieged for The Crossing, Give Me Hunger for Chanticleer, Glorious Mahalia for the Kronos Quartet, Rites for the Afterlife for the Akropolis and Calefax Reed Quintets, and My Dearest Ruth for voice and piano with text by the husband of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Dr. Garrop has served as the featured composer of the Bowling Green State University New Music Festival and the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, as well as a mentor composer for the Cabrillo Conductors/Composers Workshop, LunART Festival Composers Hub, and Chicago a cappella’s HerVoice Emerging Women Choral Composers Competition. She was the inaugural Emerging Opera Composer for Chicago Opera Theater’s Vanguard Program (2018-2020), and Composer-in-Residence with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, funded by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras (2016-2019).

Theodore Presser Company publishes her works. Her music is frequently recorded by Cedille Records, with works commercially available on several additional labels. For more information, please visit her website at www.garrop.com.

About Damien Geter, Composer

Damien Geter is an acclaimed American composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the Black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice, as well as a celebrated bass-baritone whose varied credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen. He is Richmond Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence through 2026 and serves as Interim Music Director & Artistic Advisor at Portland Opera.

Geter’s rapidly growing and “invigoratingly fresh” (Opera Today) body of work (in 2022 alone, he had six premieres) includes chamber, vocal, orchestral, and full operatic works, with his compositions praised for their “skillful vocal writing” (Wall Street Journal). This season, the world premiere of Geter’s new major opera, Loving v. Virginia, concludes Virginia Opera’s 50th anniversary season. Based on the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving, the opera is co-commissioned by Virginia Opera and Richmond Symphony. Another new opera of Geter’s, Delta King’s Blues, commissioned by IN Series, will be workshopped in January 2025 and premiered later that year. His song, Amanirenas, commissioned by soprano Karen Slack for her African Queens art song program, tours at Washington Performing Arts, the Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival, 92nd Street Y New York, the Nashville Symphony, and Friends of Chamber Music Denver. His newly commissioned song, Gentle lady, do not sing, is included on the Choral Scholars University College Dublin’s album, Music by James Joyce, Volume I (September 2024, Signum Classics).

As conductor this season, he leads 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.Future commissions include world premieres with the Richmond Symphony and Nathaniel Dett Chorale, plus a new operatic production at Portland Opera in 2026.Called “superb” by The News Tribune, DC Theater Arts praises Geter’s “commanding presence and voice full of bass-baritone gravitas”. Last season, Geter portrayed the role of abolitionist and historian William Still to great critical acclaim in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec’s oratorio Sanctuary Road, presented by Virginia Opera. He also joined 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.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.

About Tiana Sorenson, Soprano

Wisconsin-born and Chicago-based soprano Tiana Sorenson is an accomplished performer whose work spans the breadth of the classical repertoire—from early music to contemporary commissions. In chamber settings, she has collaborated with renowned ensembles across the country, including The Crossing (featured on their 2023 and 2025 Grammy Award–winning albums), Conspirare, Lorelei, Alarm Will Sound, and Apollo’s Fire. Tiana is a frequent collaborator with The Thirteen, a Washington, D.C.–based ensemble, where she serves as a mentor for their Vocal Fellows Program—an initiative designed to support and develop early-career singers from underrepresented backgrounds. In Chicago, she has performed with a wide range of ensembles: Hearing in Color, Newberry Consort, William Ferris Chorale, and Bella Voce, as well as the choruses of Grant Park and Chicago Symphony. Her operatic work includes covering roles with both Chicago Opera Theater and Lyric Opera of Chicago, most recently in Lyric’s 2024–25 season as Girlfriend 1/Nurse in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue.

About Leah Dexter, Mezzo-Soprano

A force in the Chicago area performing arts scene, Leah debuted two world premiere roles, this past season, with Chicago Opera Theater: Herbalist in Remedios Varios, and Susie “Mama Sue” McDonald in the critically acclaimed, She Who Dared, for which her performance was praised as “pointed and iridescent” (Chicago Tribune). Further solo performances for the 24/25 season included Girlfriend 3 (cover) for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Blue, Handel’s Messiah with Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Rutter’s Feel the Spirit with the DuPage Symphony, and Reicha’s Requiem with the DePaul Community Chorus. Upcoming engagements include Notes for Peace recordings and concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Institute, a return to Chicago Opera Theater for Die Silbersee in the role of Frau von Luber and a debut with the Rockford Symphony for Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony No. 1. In addition, Leah continues her work with the Lyric Opera of Chicago Chorus, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and the Grant Park Festival Chorus throughout the season.

To learn more, visit www.leahdexter.com

About Cameo Humes, Tenor

Hailed by critics for possessing a “compelling lyric tenor that pulses with the perennially conflicted feelings of the character” [Opera News] and a “sonorous, dark-hued timbre which vividly projected the complicated nature of the drama” [theWholeNote], CAMEO HUMES is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after tenors in operatic and concert repertoire. He has performed with Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Richmond Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, SANAA Opera Project, and the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’International Chamber Ensemble in Italy. His most recent engagements included a debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago in the role of Mano Alfaroin Terrence Blanchard’s Champion as well as debuts with Lucerne Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and Teatro alla Scala in the roles of Peter, Crab man, Mingo and Robbins in Porgy and Bess. Other operatic credits include the title role in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Reverend Milton Allison in the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Quamino’s Map with Chicago Opera Theater, Ottavio (Don Giovanni) with Operafestival di Roma, Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Gastone(La Traviata), Prunier (La Rondine), Peter (Porgy and Bess) with Lyric Opera of Chicago(cover), Dayton Opera and Skylight Music Theatre of Milwaukee, Crab man (Porgy and Bess)with The Princeton Festival, Nelson (Porgy and Bess) with Cincinnati Opera, and Ensemble(Show Boat) with Houston Grand Opera. He has recorded the lead role in Richard Thompson’s The Mask in the Mirror—a modern opera based on the life of Paul Laurence Dunbar—with Navona Records which was reviewed by Opera News and selected as Critic’s Choice.A lover and avid performer of the Negro spiritual, Cameo has toured Spain, France and Ireland with the world-renowned American Spiritual Ensemble. He is also a full-time member of the chorus at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

About Khary Laurent, Bass-Baritone

Khary Laurent (also known as K. F. Jacques) is a classical singer and hip-hop producer. He has been featured on The Rosie Show (OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network), WGN News, ABC7 News, and multiple television and radio networks, having toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. Currently, Mr. Laurent serves as head composer and stars as Figaro in The Rosina Project—a “hip-hopera” adaptation of The Barber of Seville, featuring a dynamic cast of rappers, dancers, singers, a beatboxer, and a DJ. The production has been featured in the Pivot Arts Festival for two consecutive years, and highlighted by the Chicago Sun-Times and The Chicago Tribune. It also received grants for a citywide summer tour through the Chicago Park District’s “Night Out in the Parks” initiative.

 His latest work, Telekinetik, was commissioned by Catapult Opera and incorporates cameos of his octogenarian, Haitian-born father. Blending science fiction elements, the piece explores themes of violence and bravado in contemporary society. Previously, L’Assassino—a hip-hop opera film commissioned by Resonance Works Pittsburgh—delved into the backstory of Verdi’s infamous villain Sparafucile. During the pandemic, Chicago Fringe Opera commissioned Corsair for the Decameron Opera Coalition’s Tales From a Safe Distance. The work premiered to critical acclaim, earning “Best New Local Opera Production” from The Chicago Reader and “Best Music Video” from the Aladerri International Film Festival, among other awards.

 A native of Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Laurent holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. His recent roles include Tom in Fizz ‘n’ Ginger with Chicago Fringe Opera, and the title role in Don Giovanni with Fargo-Moorhead Opera.