Damien Geter
©️ Rachel Hadiashar

45-year-old American Damien Geter, composer-in-residence at the Richmond Symphony, has been named Music director of Oregon’s Portland Opera. Geter had already been serving as the artistic advisor and interim music director.

Geter is also a bass-baritone who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, as well as orchestras and other ensembles. As an actor, he has played roles in a number of stage and television productions.

‘Loving v. Virginia,’ Geter’s and librettist Jessica Murphy Moo’s opera on the lives of Mildred and Richard Loving, who defied Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage, leading to the 1967 US Supreme Court ruling outlawing such laws, was premiered by Virginia Opera earlier this year.

Portland Opera has recently expanded their education and community outreach program through the acquisition of Opera Quest Northwest, the Vancouver nonprofit that has brought live operatic music into elementary schools throughout Southwest Washington. The two organizations formally merged earlier this year.