Good afternoon everyone I am Mara ksten president of Tidewater Community College and it is my pleasure this afternoon to introduce welcome all of you and introduce a guest speaker this afternoon um Mr Damian Damian Jeter we are so excited to have him here but I wanted to extend a
Warm welcome to all of you for this wonderful event celebrating black history I will tell you that I am a proponent of the Arts and I have enjoyed listening to some of daman’s fabulous Works he is an outstanding article and you will hear more about him so this
Would be a tremendous treat for all of our students our faculty and staff I also want to say that I enjoyed um seeing Damian as he participated in sanctuary Road here in norol on January 28 so without further Ado it is my privilege to welcome uh Dean Carolyn
Phillips who would further continue the program thank you good afternoon and thank you for joining us as we celebrate Black History Month I am Carolyn Phillips pathway dean of arts and humanities and I am honored to provide a statement of occasion for this wonderful event Black History Month
Is a time where we intentionally honor and celebrate the diverse contributions that people of African descent have made and continue to make in our community nation and World in 1926 the contributions of African and black Americans were rarely honored Carter G Woodson a highly accomplished man whose parents endured the atrocities of
Slavery helped to establish a week-long observance to honor the achievements of the millions of people who helped build this land in 1976 President Gerald Ford urged Americans to seize the opportunity to honor the too often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history that Black History Month became
An official month-long observance which is now celebrated in countries all over the world thank you and I’d like to introduce my colleague Mark Dennison for the introduction thank you Dean Phillips Damen Jeter is an acclaimed composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the black diaspora to create music that
Furthers the cause for social justice his rapidly growing body of work includes chamber vocal orchestral and full operatic works with his compositions being praised for their skillful vocal writing he is composer and Residence at the Richmond Symphony through the uh 2024 425 season and serves as the inter music director and
Artistic adviser at the Portland Opera as well as the artistic adviser for the Renaissance ensemble in the 2023 24 season De Moine Metro Opera presented the fulllength world premiere of Jeter’s Opera American Apollo while the Virginia Opera holds a workong uh a workshop of loving versus Virginia a new major work
Co-commissioned by Virginia Opera and the Richmond Symphony which will Premiere as part of Virginia Opera’s 50th Anniversary season in May of 2025 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra programmed Jeter’s Annunciation and Richmond Symphony premiered the brand premieres a brand new work Symphonia Americana to be conducted by music director Valentina pellei his song cycle
Cotton commissioned by the lyric Fest will see its New York Premiere at the 92nd Street y uh starring Denise Graves and Justin Austin Additionally the recording inclusivity initiative recorded string quartet number one Neo Soul future commissions include premieres at Seattle Opera and Emanuel music and World premiere operatic
Productions in 2024 25 and 26 at De Mo Metro Virginia in series and Portland operas Jeter will also have subsequent premieres at Richmond Symphony last season cotton was given its World premiere in Philadelphia followed by its Washington DC Premiere at the Kennedy Center presented by the Washington performing arts and his motet was
Performed by Emanuel music uh Jeter also conducted his own piece an africanamerican requium at the Fort Worth Opera plus led the performance of absence Terren Blanchard with the Portland Opera in 2022 Jeter had six premieres as a compos ER an African-American requium in partnership with the Renaissance Ensemble and the
Oregon Symphony I said what I said with immani wins co-commissioned by anima Mundi Productions chamber music Northwest and the Oregon Bach Festival Holy Ground for glimmerglass Opera elegy for the American Guild of organists the Bron bronze Legacy for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber version of American Apollo for the De
Moine Metro Opera favorite recent highlights include the commission’s canata for a hopeful tomorrow for the Washington chorus with subsequent performances at the P Pacific Coral coal Arts Northwest Bethune cookman University Northern Arizona University Southwestern University and the birkshire coral International with future performances at Minnesota cor Coral artists the Justice Symphony for
The University of Michigan with subsequent performances with the Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center and future performances at the Fort Worth Opera burro uh for the Portland Baroque uh uh Orchestra which will have subsequent performances with the Seattle Symphony and visible for the Opera theater Oregon and string quartet number one neo soul
For the all classical Portland and onsite Opera his piece 1619 also appeared with the on-site Opera as part of their presentation What Lies Beneath Jeter is an alumnist of the austrian-american Mozart festival and the Aspen Opera Center uh and was an Irma Cooper vocal competition finalist he toured with the American spiritual
Ensemble and is the owner of DG Music Sans feere publishing music in context and examination of Western European music through a social political lens the book he co-authored is available on Amazon or from the publisher Kendall hunt you can find Damien at www Damian Jeter music.com and now without further Ado Mr Damen
Jeter well good afternoon everyone and and I want to thank uh Professor dennon introduction and I’d also like to send a special thank you to Alicia pebles for inviting me uh to speak with you all today and I hope you don’t mind if this chat is a little bit
Heterodox I’ve prepared a speech um but it’s not going to be chalk full of formalities you might expect from a person giving a speech on a topic they’re supposedly an expert in but anyway uh speaking of expert let me make it very plain that from the beginning I
Do not claim an expert of anything but I think my lived experience has provided me with enough information to speak with confidence about a small number of topics and one of these is the real of classical music I’m putting those in quotes uh and to augment the vast
Subject even further black folks in classical music now I’m using these quotations because when I speak about classical music um for two reasons thing two things come to mind uh I’m not talking about the classical era which was Capital C classical era what I like
To call it um that births some of the most famous composers that we know um from the early uh from the mid 18th century and the early 19th centuries like Mozart and Beethoven for example uh those those guys um people you may have heard of and the second
Reason is because classical music comes with its own set of stereotypes that deem the art inaccessible to those who don’t fit a c certain Financial demographic um there’s this there’s a mystery around classical music I think um but well just as I want you and honestly me to feel comfortable
Receiving and giving giving this giving this speech I want all folks to feel that sense of ease when they enter the concert hall of course being a black musician working in this realm that I chose to work has its own set of challenges which is a whole other speech
Um unto itself but it affords the opportunity to break down some of the barriers that keep the concert hall like like it was in Mozart’s day fairly heterogeneous but we are out here and by we I mean black folks and by the way happy Black History Month um and the
Reality is is we’ve been out here the term black e Excellence has blossomed through present day colloquialisms but its Essence is firmly rooted in our ancestors histories through their stories heroing strength bravery resilience and their ability to Envision a better tomorrow even if not in their lifetime uh but for Generations after
Them and I have to admit that I have a little bit of an issue with the term black Excellence because it somehow suggests that our worthiness is determined only by how excellent we are and then when you add to that it’s According to which standard and is it possible for me to
Have a bad day and still be excellent but anyway um I came up with the title of the speech so I guess I should stick with it um and I did a little digging so in his article published on LinkedIn English data analyst oo Goro defines it
As a term used to describe outstanding achievements and contributions made by individuals of African descent across various Fields including but not limited to academics Arts Sciences Sports business and activism it encompasses excellence in professional accomplishment leadership creativity Innovation and resilience often in the face of systemic barriers and historical
Oppression maybe that’s what this where the standard comes in Black Excellence celebrates the achievements of black individuals and communities and highlights their inevitable contributions to society culture and advancement of humanity as a whole I mean that’s a definition I can get behind but I still have my feelings about the
Term um which I will come back to to in a second but first I wanted to give you a little bit of information on how I got started in the industry and how I ended up where I am today which I still don’t
Quite know but here I am um I grew up in a musical household I’m actually from Virginia I live in Chicago now but I’m a native of Virginia I grew up in Chesterfield County which is just south of Richmond and I grew up in southern Chesterfield so I’m very familiar with
Farms tobacco Fields pig farms things like this so this is kind of where I I grew up um I grew up in a musical household my mother was an astounding singer she sang mostly in church but she sang other stuff too my grandmother lived with us she played the piano and
The organ sometimes for church my dad had had and still has um very eclectic musical tastes owning records across multiple multiple genres which I’m trying to get from him now um since records are making a comeback um some some of the records he own were folks like earthwind and fire
Harland and notes Beethoven and chovsky yes Beethoven and chovsky um back in the 80s Time Life Magazine had a special Series where you could purchase classical music records and my parents bought two records they bought Beethoven 6 and they bought chaikovsky it was either five or six I’m not exactly sure
Which one um but when I get the records I’ll be able to tell the story a little bit better uh I think it was six though um but anyway uh I can still see the covers today Beethoven uh Beethoven’s album they both had this the similar style but Beethoven’s album had a bust
Of Beethoven which was sitting on a blue velvet sort of crup velvet material chovy’s was uh the same it was there was a bust of chovsky which was sitting on top of a sort of burnt orange crushed velvet material I can still see those records to this day um but I never
Knew how much those records would changeed my life and I don’t think my parents did either I’m often asked about what made me gravitate towards plal music and not another type of music and the fact of the matter is is that I love all types
Of music I’m my father’s child I if it’s good I will listen to it but I chose to have a career in classical music for some strange reason um the truth is I really don’t know and probably had something to do with my my love of classical music probably has something
To do with the acoustic element of the symphony orchestra the power of human connection when playing in an orchestra the power of The Human Experience and the music itself the Synergy feeling these are feelings that I couldn’t describe when I was a child but now that
I’m a little bit older I can attach words to what I remember feeling back then I would watch PBS’s Great Performances and that’s how I got my classical music fix aside from the records um and CDs which I purchased later as a teenager uh there were orchestras nearby there was the
Petersburg Symphony there’s the Richmond Symphony which I’m so privileged to be the composer in residence for them now um there’s also the Virginia Symphony which is in your neighborhood in the tiwater region um but oddly enough with the exception of the Petersburg Symphony I didn’t really see a lot of black folks
In these groups and that didn’t really cross my mind as a child um but through PBS um I had front row seats to the New York fil Chicago Symphony Berlin philarmonic these are some of the major orchestras of the world available available right to me in my own living
Room um I took piano lessons I took organ lessons as a child and that’s where I began My Life as a composer um with the encouragement of my teacher I constructed little Melody melies on the piano and then the challenge was to try to remember those Melodies because I
Didn’t really have the skills to to write them down at that point and because improvisation is such an important part of playing the organ I began to make up music on the spot um from an early age it was instilled instilled in me that not only could I
Play music that someone else wrote I could play music that I wrote and other people could play music that I wrote so through every phase of my musical Journey composition was a part of it in some way the middle school high school college and certainly now so the question I often times get
Asked is why Opera how did this come to be and the answer is um well I’ll tell you what the answer is I knew nothing about Opera I could tell you about any symphonic composer I even memorize uh Symphonies by several composers which I still have locked in
My memory um one thing I used to do as a teenager is go to the library go to our public library and if they they didn’t have a lot of scores but the ones they had I would check them out and I would check out the CD and I would follow the
Scores uh right along so I I didn’t know how much of an education I was giving to myself during this time learning um talking about you know orchestration how to read a score and things like this and coincidentally I forgot to mention that my my grandmother was probably who I
Consider my very first music teacher um she was not a professional musician but you don’t really have to be to get the amount of Education that she gave me she lived with us and I remember she would just sit back in her room and just kind
Of sing her feelings and so from that I learned how to emote and and several other things which again that’s that’s a whole I could talk about that for a long long time but anyway let me let me Focus here um so I used to check out out the
Scores and the CDs from the library and follow along and also during that time um I was very fascinated with kind of earlyish jazz like Billy Holiday Louis Armstrong elitz dur Lester Young those folks I have a sort of a wide range of knowledge about about that era as well um but
Again I don’t know anything about Opera um so I don’t even remember the first time I heard an operatic voice but I think it must have been on PBS um and it probably was the late great Jesse Norman um I say probably because I’ve seen this video of her draped in a
French flag singing Lamas and when I saw it uh not too long ago it felt so familiar to me that I must have seen it when I was a child so anyway I went to old dominan University I was a trumpet major uh education with an education focus and on
My very first day of school I took a beginning voice class and part of the training as a music education major was that you are supposed to take classes for each instrument we call them methods classes and so one of the first things the very first class that I took
Um that I went to as a freshman was beginning voice class um my first methods classes was beginning voice sorry I’m straining away from the speech a little bit and so I’m trying to come back and focus um now as a child I sing all the time but when my
Voice changed I didn’t sing as much because I didn’t know what was going on in here I mean I was singing stuff on par with Whitney Houston Mariah Carey I was singing all those whistle tones and things like this and then when my voice changed I was like I don’t know how to
Do that anymore so I stopped singing for a long long time um so that first day of college uh the teacher made us get up in front of the class and sing My Country Tis of the it was sort of very interesting that she assumed that everybody knew that
Song but anyway um so I stood up in the class great I got up sang the song People clapped as they did for everyone and I sat down uh upon leaving my teacher Dr Joanne Sims encouraged me to take private lessons because she heard something that was potentially operatic in my voice
Something to do with the resonance which I Now understand so opera singers don’t use microphones we rely on our facial structures and our sinuses and the res resonating Chambers in our face actually to project the sound and some folks naturally have a very uh resonant voice
I probably get it from my dad um I didn’t know I had this but she heard something in there that led me to take voice lessons and she encouraged me to do that um and so I did I don’t know if I did the first semester but I did the
Semesters after that still still studying trumpet um I had my first singing gig uh at a church at First Lutheran um in Norfolk and uh I got that because I sang a jury and my sight singing teacher Dr tley said hey I have a job for you if you want it
So I was getting I from that point on I was a professional singer I wasn’t composing much at that time but when the spirit moved me I found time to write and I wish that in the real world it were that way but now I have bills so I
Have to write even when the spirit does not move me so as of late my focus has been composition the change for me um when in 2016 I decided to use my Artistry to the fullest extent to support causes that were personal to me and to my community
I was inspired by a quote from The Pianist singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone who you see a picture of behind me um who said it’s the artist’s duty to reflect the times my compositions often explore themes of identity social justice and personal experience reflecting my own
Background and perspective as a black artist and some of the titles have that Professor Dennis also mentioned include an African-American requium which is the full reum mass in Latin and English that is dedicated to the lives um to the victims of racial violence in this country 1619 which is a song cycle for
Choir and it is a setting of the um WPA uh back in the 20s I believe maybe early earlier than that would go around and collect stories from formerly enslaved individuals some of them talked about how they got over here to the country some of them talked about their
Relatives who came from Africa and they just basically talked about their experience um on the plantations cotton uh was a song cycle that was alluded to American Apollo which focuses on the uh model Tom mckel who was the primary model of the painter John Singer Sargeant and Thomas mckel
Was a black man um which will have its full Premiere this summer the bronze Legacy which is the setting of the poem and invisible which is a setting of the um preamble to the the book Invisible by Ralph Ellison I’m trying to get the rights to that so I can write the full
Opera but I’m having a hard time but anyway um I’ve had the opportunity to be commissioned by a variety of organizations like Virginia Opera uh as was mentioned which will Premiere my Opera loving V Virginia in a uh May of 2025 so a year almost a year from now
And I’ve had my Works perform in some of the most prestigious houses in this country and form relationships with colleagues near and far most notably um the blacknificent 7 we call ourselves B7 not to be confused with Beethoven 7 Symphony uh a glorified group of um this basically we’re a glorified text group
Um people try to make us bigger than that but that’s what we are um and they include members Jesse Montgomery who I’m so proud of her she recently won a for best contemporary classical composition uh Carlos Simon Joel Thompson sha Oak pebo Jasmine Barnes and Dave Raglin uh we started making some
Strides as a collective and we actually had a debut as a group last December with the Chicago Symphony when they played uh a piece by each of us uh but continue with the with the idea of black Excellence uh this is a topic that has been overlooked in the
Grand Narrative of classical music but in recent years most notably after the death of George Floyd and ban Taylor the lack of prominence in of black artists in this realm was the topic of discussion for many presenters after they were basically forced to see you know the tragedies that happened I’m
Pretty sure that not only in music but different sectors across the wide range of industries were having the same conversations um that you know actually you know it racism still exists right so I for one participated in a number of panels and talkbacks on the subject uh and I was asked to write
Music at a rate that did not have me wanting for anything during the pandemic I have to admit black artists from all disciplines were responding to these tragedies in ways that historians will probably look back and comment on the cultural Renaissance that we are currently living in particularly a black
Renaissance I think um um for far too long the contributions of black composers musicians and artists to the world of classical music have been sidelined and their achievements have been buried beneath layers of systemic racism and Prejudice but let sh let shine a spotlight on some of these uh individuals and their invaluable
Contributions to the rich tapestry of this art form so as I said um I’ll get to that in a second classical music whether rightly or wrongly is placed under the it’s placed in the upper echelons of artistic Expressions yet historical narrative surrounding classical music has been one of exclusion with black composers and
Musicians often regulated to the margins of this craft but despite facing immense adversity black Excellence has shown through Illuminating the world with its Brilliance and resilience so as I said we’ve been here here so let’s Journey back through history to a time when slavery cast a dark shadow over the United States and
When much and much of the Western World in the midst of unimaginable oppression persons who were enslaved found solace and strength in music our spirituals and folk songs became a testament to the enduring human Spirit laying the foundation for what would for what would later uh evolve into Blues Jazz gospel
Which is tied to popular music today the Czech composer Anthony dvorac while teaching at the national Conservatory of Music In America which was located in New York befriended African-American singer and composer whose name was Harry T Burley uh Burley introduced the spirital to dvorac dvorac later claimed
That it was the Negro Melodies that was America’s music and the composers should rely on them when composing in an American style however no one took him seriously so dvorac as I said was a Czech composer and he used a lot of folk Melodies From his own country and
Infused them into his U compositions and so his thought was that composers should use the me spirituals he called them negro Melodies that was the term back then spirituals work songs things like this and Infused that idiom into their compositions in fact he wrote a symphony called Symphony of the new World which
Was inspired a lot by black music and also uh Native American music so let’s go back to the time of Mozart um one of the most remarkable stories of black excellence in classical music is that of Joseph bologna he um was born in the French colony of
Guadaloop in the 18th century uh he rose to prominence as a virtuoso violinist composer and conductor in Parisian High Society despite facing rampid racism and Prejudice uh bolognia defied the odds the odds captivating audiences with his unparalleled talent andma but when Marie Antoinette wanted to appoint him music director of the
Paris Opera he was ousted by a group of women who refused to perform under his baton despite him being more than qualified for the job and Not only was Joseph A Fine musician he was surprised when fencer he was the leader of an all black regiment in France where he acquired his title
Chaler de sanor and some of you may have seen the movie that came out about his life last year called chaler um but his music went Into Obscurity after his death while his contemporaries Mozart and heyen flourished supposedly Napoleon went through Great Lengths to have Joseph’s
Name erased from history but in the late 1990s his name became to uh began to reappear again and there seemed to be an even bigger Resurgence in the 2010s when many of his Works were programmed I’ve been actually approached to write an opera about his life um I
Don’t know when I’m supposed to do it but the the it has been posed so anyway uh fast forward a couple hundred years um I’m skipping over a lot of folks because I only have limited amount of time but fast forward a couple hundred years and we have the Resurgence of another
Sort of not so long lost composer Florence price uh price was born in Arkansas but spent most of her active composing life in Chicago um she was the first African-American woman to have her music uh play performed by a major Symphony Orchestra and this case it was her first
Symphony I believe she written three of them uh in 2009 a discovery of her manuscripts in the addict of her old summer home led to the performance of many prices Works um long after she died in 1953 it’s a real pity that she was not alive to see the importance of her
Contributions not only to the art form as a whole but to the cannon of important black artists who are helping to augment the traditional Cannon price is a great example of using those negro Melodies that dorj was talking about her own compositions now of course she was black so that was that
Was a natural extension of who she was and it happened to be that way and speaking from experience we are all the we are the product of all the music that has come across our ears in fact one of the joys that I have as a composer is to make
Sure that I include elements of my blackness in my compositions well it’s it’s never intentional but it happens that way whether it’s through direct use of spirituals or driving rhythms grooves or Melodies that come out of the blues or jazz Traditions what I can offer orchestras opera companies chamber music
Series Etc are sounds that you wouldn’t expect from a symphony orchestra and after hundreds and hundreds of years and several musical eras the very daunting task of putting little black dots in an order that has never been done before is conquered by the infusion of some of
These traits um in the classical music realm today um throughout the centuries black composers and musicians have continued to defy expectations and break down barriers in the world of classical music from the pioneering works of William Grant still often referred to as the dean of African-American composers to the groundbreaking uh performances of
Marian Anderson who shattered racial barriers as one of the first African-American opera singers to perform at the Metropolitan Opera black Excellence has left an indelible mark on classical music history and we feel the effects of that today more than ever although I’m part of a seven black composer Collective we certainly are not
The only ones who exist in the field and the number of black musicians actively performing today is still low but it is it is much better than what it was my fear is that with schools cutting Arts programs access to music will become even more difficult and the playing
Field will be left much smaller than it was uh when there was enough money to maintain these Arts programs the journey towards inclusivity and representation in classical music is far from over sorry got some Sirens going on despite the strides we have made systemic racism and discrimination
Continue to persist in our society and within the classical music industry industry itself too often black musicians are overlooked for opportunities are voices are silenced by the entrenched culture of privilege and elitism and while there has been so much progress I feel like things are taking a
Step back all the Dei initiatives by Performing Arts organization organizations that came out of 2020 um have been overridden by the fact that after the pandemic which I guess we’re still in question mark um audiences have continued to dwindle in most markets and some of even in some of the biggest
Markets so the focus has become less about diversifying the field the field but more about getting the butts in the seats and for many organizations that means going back to Bach Beethoven and brahs although there are a few outliers brond symphony is one of them for example Virginia Opera is one of them
Example it’s not only a mere hunch that diverse programming brings about diverse audiences it’s a fact I have seen this from myself over the years more recently as was mentioned earlier I was in a production um with Virginia opera called Sanctuary Road the story of it’s the story of African-American conductor of
The Underground Railroad who documented the lives of the formerly enslaved who came through Philadelphia the audience for all six shows which we just closed on Sunday in Richmond um was a beautiful mix of people from many different backgrounds in ages it proves that when you when people see themselves represented on the stage
They’re more likely to show up so this was true at a recent Lyric Opera of Chicago Chicago performance that I went to of a piece called Champion uh by Terence Blanchard uh if you’ve seen Malcolm X if you’ve seen Harriet uh any Le film pretty I think that um
Terence Blanchard has scored all of Spike Le’s films I don’t know if that’s completely true but he’s a big film composer um Champion is the story of Emil Griffith the bisexual black boxer who killed one of his opponents in the ring uh the same was true for terrence’s
Opera fire sh up in my bones uh the premiere of that at the Met the Met performed um that was the first opera that the Metropolitan Opera performed by a black composer and I remember going to that Premiere and it was electric the audience was on on fire uh the same was
True of a piece called an American Dream uh which I believe Virginia opera did it’s an opera about Japanese inter ternent camps I mean the examples the examples go on we’ll see what happens with the with the operas that I’ve written that’ll premere in the next couple years so as we celebrate Black
Excellence in classical music let us also reflect on the work that still lies ahead it is incumbent upon all of us to dismantle the barriers that continue to exclude black musicians from the classical music world to amplify our voices and to ensure that our contribution contributions are recognized and
Celebrated as I said things have gotten better but with progression there can also be regression in closing let us remember that the essence of classical music lies not only in the color of one’s skin but in the universal language of Melody and Harmony that transcends all boundaries
Let us strive to build a future where black excellence in classical music is not only acknowledged but embraced and celebrated as an integral and wonderful addition to the art form that I fell in love with as a child let it become a normal part of the tapestry as familiar as Beethoven and as
Accessible as any concert in the popular realm I would like to close with a song and the song that I’ve chosen to sing for you today is a piece by the composer Margaret bonds who also um black composer also is sort of having a Resurgence along with her contemporary
Florence price who I mentioned earlier the piece is called when the dove enters in the text is by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes was a a frequent collaborator of of margar bonds and also um her friend uh the style of the piece is in a sort of a gospel type style and the text
Is this have you ever seen a mother seek her airing son and find him deep in sin doing what he should not have done then she falls down on her knees and prays he’ll be made whole and the dove enters into his soul oh when the dove enters in
And the light is revealed your sins are forgiven and your Sorrows are healed on the pathway to Glory new wonders begin with prayer as the Healer when the dove enters in have you ever seen a father seek his wandering girl and find her deep in sin a prisoner of this
World then he falls down on his knees and prays she’ll be made whole and the dove enters into her soul oh when the dove enters in and the light is revealed your sins are forgiven and your Sorrows are healed on the pathway to Glory new wonders begin with prayer as the Healer
When the dove enters in do you have a sinful brother lost outside the fold wasting all his talents in a world so Bleak and cold then just fall down on your knees and pray he’ll be made whole ask the dove to come into his soul oh when the dove enters in and
The light is revealed your sins are forgiven and your Sorrows are healed on the pathway to Glory new wonders begin with prayer as the Healer when the dove enters in have you ever seen a mother seek her airing son and find him deep in sin doing what he should not have
Done then she falls down on her knees and prays he’ll be made whole and the dark enters into his soul oh when the venters in and the light is revealed your sins are forgiven and your Sorrows are healed on the pathway to Glory new wonders begin with prayer as the
Healer when the do enters in have you ever seen a father seek his wondering girl and find her deep in sin a prisoner of this world then he falls down on his knees and praise shall be made whole and the dove enters into his soul oh when the
Dove enters in and the light is revealed your sins are for Forgiv and your Sorrows are healed on the pathway to Glory new wonders begin with prayer as the Healer when the dove enters in do you have have a sinful brother lost outside the fold wasting all his talents in a world so Bleak and cold then just fall down on your
Knees and pray he be made whole ask the D to come into his soul oh when the enters in and the light is revealed your sins are Forgiven and your Sorrows are healed on the pathway to Glory new wonders begin with prayer as the Healer when the dove enters in thank you thank you Damen that was phenomenally awesome um so I’ve got some questions actually I just finished my advanced music theory class uh before
Getting onto the our Zoom meeting today so I’ve got some questions from some of the students and uh I’m not sure if we’ve gotten any from our live stream chat yet um but uh but let’s uh you mentioned earlier um about growing up in the household with eclectic musical taste
And I think a lot of us can uh identify with that um uh I mean I grew up with everything from uh switched on Bach in the 70s to Percy Sledge to Johnny Cash that sort of thing um how does how how do you make the transition for yourself
Blending these different various musical elements as a composer and a songwriter um into your compositions are do they grow organically or are you selective or H how do how does that work with with all your dis different uh um uh influences of your musical influences how do you approach your songwriting and
Your compositions with those diverse elements well the thing I will say is that um you it’s never intentional unless it is so um for example in in the in the in the loving Opera so this takes place in the 50s and the 60s right so I knew that I wanted to
Kind of live in that world for a little bit and so I was very intentional in um including country music there’s some blue in it there’s some Rock in it so um there’s a protest um uh scene where I knew I wanted to use rock music and so
Having been exposed to rock music it was not a difficult thing for me to do I would say in other instances it’s a lot of times it’s not intentional and it’s always fun for me to hear what other people get out of it because um the the
Piece I just wrote for the for the Richmond Symphony it’s called Symphony or maryana you know one of my goals is to one of my quests I should say as a composer is to always is to Define what that American sound is I mean we have copelan and Bernstein and you know all
These American composers who have sort of made their mark on it but with the exception of Bernstein that doesn’t include different cultures from this country right which this country is made up of so many different cultures how can you you know say that this is the American town without
Including whole groups of people and so when I’m writing it’s it’s my my Blackness is never an intentional thing it just sort of comes out by nature of me being that and I think the same goes for any any type of musical influence I’m very lucky and that I can draw from
A different from a variety of of things of different um genres um but like I said it’s never intentional unless it is like for that example when I said I want to write a rock moment here and other times when I’m just sort of sitting at the piano and improvising and trying to
Figure out if I’m stuck in a rut you know um some of these influence kind of organically come out of me and it’s that’s the same for for any composer I I think would tell you the same thing awesome thank you sir um we oftentimes talk we meaning my
Students and I and uh um some of the my friends um we talk about the compositional process um the and the songw writing as as a as an experiment um when when you’re in the middle of your compositional process uh are you and you mentioned this earlier um
Let me go back to my notes as you were talking you you mentioned with your grandmother emoting through music and I thought that was a really interesting way to put it um do you do you do you follow more of an intellectual approach or do you follow
More of a an emotional like what what am I trying to get at sort of thing um the uh how how do you approach your your creative direction is it kind of a discovery process or is it more of a linear I have these things that I want
To do along the way um type of thing I think it’s a little bit of both um I I mean I approach music from the standpoint of getting some sort of emo I mean it it’s it depends I mean every every it’s um it’s not this it’s not the
Same for every single piece because an opera is different than a string quartet for example but my Approach is I I write from the heart and I write with emotion in mind um if there are times where I feel like I need to to turn on the little
Intellectual thing to please a critic or something like that which I really rarely do I can do that um but you know there are there are part I keep referencing loving there are Parts in loving sorry I don’t know how loud that siren is but there are okay there are parts of
Loving are completely atonal um that are devoid of any emotion and because that was very that fit that specific scene I approach it always from the stpoint that I want my listener to Come Away with some sort of emotional response whether it’s Joy whether it’s questioning things um some sort of
Emotional response and that is the same as if I’m writing an opera or I’m writing a string quartet even if you walk away from the string quartet and say hey that was dope great that’s what I want you to get out of it um you know I wrote a piece called an
African-American recre and I don’t try to um prescribe emotions that I want people you know one question that I often times get is uh what do you want the audience to get out of it well I don’t I don’t want to say what I want
The audience to get out of it because I want them to get out of it whatever they’re going to get out of it and in some respects it’s not my responsibility to to tell people how to feel when something is done I’m writing from my perspective and then you all go out and
Have the conversation about how it makes you feel that’s what I want the audience to get out of it um but I’m always I’m always writing from some sort of emotional uh response and I think by virtue of me being a singer which is so
Vulnerable and in the in the heart um I think that that definitely bleeds into my own composition so uh you also mentioned her earlier uh early in your um your talk there uh kind of being um I I don’t know how to say it maybe surprised at how you ended up where you
Ended up you know uh I mean anybody who follows anyone’s life story is like wow that was a Twist and a turn that I didn’t expect um what I’m wondering though is is uh as a composer as a black composer um getting into this is what I talk to
The students all the time is that you know half of what we do as musicians is uh learning the craft you know as a performer as a composer as a songwriter whatever um the other half is networking and I wanted to ask you about the networking aspect of of your career path
Um what what sort of strategies would you recommend to a Young musician who’s trying to uh develop an audience develop a a um an identity a musical identity a an artistic identity what what would you recommend to a young person um who’s I guess for lack of a better we’re trying
To break into the business yeah I mean I I would say especially in the beginning it’s really important to do as much as you can even if the pay is awful that is very because you never know what that will lead to in the future and I am a prime example of that
I have done pro I have done programs um I’ve been a part of festivals that didn’t really pay that much but I got to tell you those connections are your payment and I know you can’t off of connections but uh and you can eat off of uh what is it not experience but
Exposure you can’t eat off of exposure but I’m telling you those those really those early connections that you make are really really really crucial there are people that I work with today who I have known probably my entire musical life and I never knew that they
Cuz you know they’ve sort of come up as well and I never knew that we would work together in this fashion um even people that I went to high school with I have to say the other thing that um I will say is that within those connections be a nice person
Because that is the most important your reputation is the most important thing and I don’t care you can be talented you can have all you can write like John Adams you can do all these things but if you are a jerk nobody’s GNA want to work
With you and especially I feel like the tide is definitely changing toward working with people who are talented and nice so the days of the sort of um dictatorial conductor and like yelling at people you you hear these videos of tuscanini contrabass contrabass like going crazy those days are over those
Days are done be nice that is my number one advice because people will always want to work with you um that’s what I have to say about that right on I I actually I tell my students the same thing I I had a trombone teacher when I was a teenager I’m
Trombone major so you talk about Trump yay brass um but uh yeah I tell this my students the same thing is you know there uh he pulled me aside I think I was 16 years old and he said be nice you know be somebody who
Shows up on time you know knows that has their stuff learned you know all that sort of thing so that’s a thank you for saying that cuz I you know I’ve been saying it for years and I I appreciate the fact that you you know it’s coming from from somebody with a
Exemplary uh resume such as yourself so and also turn things in on time like use the time now to practice like turn in papers on time use that time to practice because if you have a deadline and you don’t turn things in on time you can actually be docked in your pay like
There all these things that can happen but again do the things that you’re supposed to do and you will you will be fine right on right on um so you you mentioned the black nificent 7 um and the the collective of of uh composers um I know we’re almost out of time here
Uh I wonder if you could speak a a little bit on the idea of break breaking down the barriers um for uh for people who’ve been dismissed from uh certain uh artistic expressions for instance symphonic music uh black composers I mean I was uh I was uh had
Two college degrees before and had taught for almost 10 years um actually over 10 years before I’d even heard of Shalia Des St George you know and I thought and as a conductor myself of orchestras I was like holy crap why why do I not know of this guy um and so when
I’ve had the opportunity with with the various student ensembles we’ve actually you know tried to uh perform some of these mus pieces you know just to kind of illuminate that that marginalized um history but as a look moving forward from that um can you speak to uh breaking down those barriers and and
Breaking down the the status quo of gatekeeping in uh concert music art music yeah I mean so the black nson 7 B7 like I said we’re sort of a glorified text group we bounce all ideas off of each other we go there if we have questions relating to sort of
Relationships within the industry uh we um if we can’t fulfill a commission we were for you know we suggest another person from the group but anyway so we we all are working composers this is what we do so we are definitely coming from a place of privilege and I think
That we feel the sense of responsibility to help break down some of those barriers and for me honestly it’s as simple as like showing up to the concert hall with a baseball cap and I wear it backwards you know to me that’s that’s helping break down a barrier I did a
Beethoven 9 in California and I wore a fire engine red suit uh I didn’t wear a tuxedo because I think there are these things that come along with it with with the sort of elitism and the sort of poshness of classical music that need to be broken down and it’s little things
Like that that I can do you know I didn’t see a lot of black folks in the symphony orchestra but if if a child saw me on stage sort of just kind of chill and relax I think that’s an invitation that that says everybody is welcome because it’s
The truth it is music it’s not I I hate this term almost classical music it is music and everybody is invited to listen to music at the end of the day and so we’ve I I feel a great responsibility to make sure that folks um who are black and brown
Especially young children come and actually when I did Sanctuary Road oh my gosh there were so many teenagers who came up to me and they were like you know we never been to an before but we kind of like it it was great I was in Virginia for six whole weeks and the
Amount of teenagers who I was who I talked to who saw themselves represented on the stage who heard themselves represented on the stage not only vocally but also through the stories it does it absolutely makes a difference so we have to create the people who are going to be either the
Benefactors or the performers of the future um it’s it’s imperative that we do that right on thank you that is that a great testimonial um is there a besides just calling it music is there a is there a term that you would like your
Music to be described as uh as a I don’t know we we we we talk about like concert music classical music art music um if you were to give a term to the music that you write uh is there a preferred term that you have that uh that you would like to
Call it I think I lately I’ve been saying concert music um and then you have to explain what that is which is fine I ultimately I end up saying classical music classical music because people can relate to that a little bit better but I but I’ve been leading with concert music
Um because that that feels that feels right to me right on um well we’re at 1:30 East Coast time I’m not sure uh if our uh Zoom meeting is going to go much longer been checking my phone but I don’t think we have any questions from the any more questions from the live
Chat just what I’ve gotten from um from my students and and uh from your your talk earlier um let’s see is there anything that you think you might want to add as as we uh get ready to close out uh that this has just been a real
Privilege I was very honored to have been asked to do this um I love to talk about this topic and I could talk about it all day this this I’ve been doing a lot of panels on what it mean to be uh a black musician uh in this industry and though
That getss a little tiring sometimes so this this format to me feels feels good for me to be able to still say the things that I need to say but in a way that doesn’t feel like I’m being oppressed I I I understand um well I I I
Suppose uh we don’t have any questions any uh further questions from the live chat um on YouTube um I I’m guessing that we’re going to go ahead and close out this session uh ladies and gentlemen Damen Jeter uh composer extraordinaire um oh actually one last question if uh if some of our audience
Members would like to follow you uh and um uh access recordings of your music uh what would be the best way for them to do that you could go to my website which is Damian Jeter that’s g t r music.com um or just follow me on Instagram it’s d
D uh Jeter g t r awesome that would be excellent and uh you’re on Instagram do you have a uh do you have any other like site besides your website that you host um uh information on is that just Facebook but I don’t know if people do people still use Facebook I don’t
Know Parts like me yeah yeah okay um so I would love to thank uh everybody who joined us today thank you so much Damien Jeter for uh coming on to our um talk today uh thank you to Sunny peoples for arranging this and the uh Matthew Blanchard for the tech support
Um thank you to Dr Marsha conston for the uh opening remarks and um uh Carolyn Phillips Dean Carolyn Phillips for the uh introduction on the the statement of occasion um other than that thank you sir so much for all of your Insight and um uh uh uh historical context for all
Of this um we really appreciate you and uh hope we can do this again sometime in the future thank you come to the Opera next year come see Ling versus Virginia right on we’ll make sure that we get uh get that information out so