Composer Damien Geter will be ‘in the house’ when the Virginia Opera and Richmond Symphony present the world premiere of Geter’s new opera Loving v. Virginia at the Carpenter Theatre May 9 to 11.
Geter, who grew up in Matoaca, enjoys sitting in the audience and seeing people’s reactions to his operas. “It’s the human connection for me. There’s a human element to all of this that can be cathartic,” he says.“People feel when they listen to music. When I get to hear what they feel or experience during the music, that is the point of it all.”
When he was young, Geter would often go to see the Petersburg Symphony as well as the Richmond Symphony. In college, he was a frequent patron of the Virginia Symphony. To see the symphony is one thing, he shares. To be there, enveloped in the music, takes the experience to the next level for him.
Richmond Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence through 2026, Geter also serves as interim music director and artistic advisor at the Portland Opera. He composes for chamber, vocal, orchestral and full operatic works. During the 2023/2024 season, Des Moines Metro Opera presented the world premiere of his opera, American Apollo.
And, if that isn’t enough creative energy, Geter is also an opera singer and a conductor.
Curiosity and creativity are two of his mainstays. As a youngster, he had a diverse group of friends. “I could hang out with athletes or theater folk,” he says. “I learned early on to have a sense of dedication and commitment, which has lasted throughout my life.”
His interest in music was cultivated by his family who sang, played the piano and enjoyed music. “My dad owned a bunch of records so I was hearing all types of music [including Beethoven and Tchaikovsky],” Geter says. “My brother was a DJ.”
His introduction also included classical organ and piano lessons and singing when he was around eight years old. “There was something about the acoustic element of it. The beauty of the music seemed otherworldly,” he says.
Geter’s love of music followed him to Old Dominion University where he majored in music education, which he followed with a master’s degree in conducting from Indiana State.
“When I first went to ODU, I was going to be an English major, but the music thing never left my psyche so I auditioned for the music department and got in,” he says.
He planned on becoming a teacher, a goal he reached. Over his 15-year teaching career, he taught high schoolers voice, jazz band, percussion and strings and he conducted musicals.
But, he made a promise to himself.
“If I ever could get a contract for the Metropolitan Opera or Broadway, I would leave teaching,” he says.
He got a contract at the Met for his opera debut as the undertaker in the Grammy award-winning production of Porgy and Bess.
“I stopped teaching and became a full-time musician,” he says, adding, “I had always been writing music for fun. Then people started taking me seriously as a composer.”
When the pandemic hit in 2020, opera companies began contacting Geter, asking for content and he obliged. Two years later, he had six premieres of his work as a composer that included An African American Requiem, in partnership with Resonance Ensemble and the Oregon Symphony.
While he loves doing all of the facets of his work, Geter is really focusing on composing and conducting. “It gets harder to keep your voice up when you do so many other things,” he says.
What he really enjoys are the stories that people bring to him like Loving v. Virginia, based on the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving, whose case led to the Supreme Court decision that struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage in the country.
“The Virginia Opera came to me with the idea. It was ripe for the operatic stage,” Geter says, noting that it is an honor to tell this story as a Virginian.
Geter, who lives in Chicago, tries to come back to visit family in Petersburg a few times each year. He came back in February to be honored by Dominion Energy and the Library of Virginia at the 2025 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History event, which honors distinguished African-American leaders in Virginia.
“It feels nice to be acknowledged by your state,” he says.
