African Queens
Karen Slack, soprano
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Recital
Karen Slack, soprano
Kevin Miller, piano
African Queens
Sunday, March 9, 2025 / 7:30 p.m.
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Recital
“Not only one of the nation’s most celebrated sopranos, but a leading voice in changing and making spaces in classical music.” – Trilloquy
Karen Slack is an operatic virtuoso who debuted the role of Billie in the 2019 world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and who has amassed a body of work highlighting living composers. Simultaneously she has developed a career as sought-after curator and collaborator and now brings her new commissioning project, African Queens, to its regional debut. The evening-length vocal recital of art songs celebrates the history and legacy of seven African queens, revered as rulers but not widely heralded in the western world. The program weaves historical narrative through new works by acclaimed composers Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson along with carefully selected traditional repertoire – further illuminated through passages of spoken text and thematic artwork.
Washington Performing Arts is a project co-commissioner of African Queens. This performance is the third-annual Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Recital—a yearly performance honoring a dear friend of Washington Performing Arts and elevating new work of both established and renowned artists.
Presented in cooperation with the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts.
This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.
Program Details
Dave Ragland – Precatio
Carlos Simon – Behold, The Queen
Dave Ragland – The Queen of Sheba
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – A Prayer from African Romances, op. 17
Florence Price – Night
Will Liverman – Invocation
Fred Onovwerosuoke – Luwah (Bitter Tears)
Damien Geter – Amanirenas
Fred Onovwerosuoke – Duniya (Mystic Universe)
Florence Price – Bewilderment
Jasmine Barnes – I Am Not Your God
Jessie Montgomery – The Song of Nzingha
Will Liverman – Incantation
Joel Thompson – Queen Nanny
Shawn Okpebholo – A Letter From Queen Ufua
“We artists need institutions that say, ‘We see and hear you and want to give you the space.’ I’ve been in the trenches. When you have someone support what you do, like Washington Performing Arts does, I’m grateful for that.”
– Karen Slack
Our Partners
Washington Performing Arts’s presentation of this project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
This event was also made possible through the generous support of Kerrien Suarez.
Washington Performing Arts’s classical music performances this season are made possible in part through the generous support of Betsy and Robert Feinberg and the Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts.
Washington Performing Arts also thanks the dozens of donors to the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Award and Recital Fund who helped make this concert possible.
Special thanks to the following lead supporters of Washington Performing Arts’s mission-driven work: Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated; D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.
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