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Performances
ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT
JUNE 4, 2025
RESIDENCY
The Atlanta Music Project announces soprano Karen Slack as Artist-in-Residence for the 2025 Atlanta Music Project Summer Series. Praised by the New York Times for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions,” Ms. Slack is winner of the 2025 GRAMMY® Award
for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Her residency at AMP will include a fireside performance and interview with Terrance McKnight, the evening host on WQXR, New York’s Classical Music Station and creator and host of the new WQXR podcast "Every Voice withTerrance McKnight," as well as masterclasses with AMP voice students and the AMP Senior Youth Choir.
MASTERCLASS WITH AMP SENIOR YOUTH CHOIR (PRIVATE EVENT)
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Music Project
ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT
JUNE 5, 2025
RESIDENCY
The Atlanta Music Project announces soprano Karen Slack as Artist-in-Residence for the 2025 Atlanta Music Project Summer Series. Praised by the New York Times for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions,” Ms. Slack is winner of the 2025 GRAMMY® Award
for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Her residency at AMP will include a fireside performance and interview with Terrance McKnight, the evening host on WQXR, New York’s Classical Music Station and creator and host of the new WQXR podcast "Every Voice withTerrance McKnight," as well as masterclasses with AMP voice students and the AMP Senior Youth Choir.
MENTORSHIP SESSION WITH AMP SENIOR STUDENTS (PRIVATE EVENT)
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Music Project
ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT
JUNE 5, 2025 at 6:30pm
RESIDENCY
The Atlanta Music Project announces soprano Karen Slack as Artist-in-Residence for the 2025 Atlanta Music Project Summer Series. Praised by the New York Times for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions,” Ms. Slack is winner of the 2025 GRAMMY® Award
for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Her residency at AMP will include a fireside performance and interview with Terrance McKnight, the evening host on WQXR, New York’s Classical Music Station and creator and host of the new WQXR podcast "Every Voice withTerrance McKnight," as well as masterclasses with AMP voice students and the AMP Senior Youth Choir.
FIRESIDE PERFORMANCE & INTERVIEW
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Music Project Center for Performance & Education
ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT
JUNE 6, 2025
RESIDENCY
The Atlanta Music Project announces soprano Karen Slack as Artist-in-Residence for the 2025 Atlanta Music Project Summer Series. Praised by the New York Times for her “sizeable voice that
captured all of the vacillating emotions,” The opening night concert features Karen Slack, soprano; John Young Shik Concklin, conductor; Kay Pace, conductor; and the AMP Summer Series Festival Orchestra & Choir
OPENING NIGHT CONCERT 2025 AMP SUMMER MUSIC SERIES
Atlanta, GA
Glen Memorial United Methodist Church
ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT
JUNE 7, 2025 at 10:00am
RESIDENCY
The Atlanta Music Project announces soprano Karen Slack as Artist-in-Residence for the 2025 Atlanta Music Project Summer Series. Praised by the New York Times for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions,” Ms. Slack is winner of the 2025 GRAMMY® Award
for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Her residency at AMP will include a fireside performance and interview with Terrance McKnight, the evening host on WQXR, New York’s Classical Music Station and creator and host of the new WQXR podcast "Every Voice withTerrance McKnight," as well as masterclasses with AMP voice students and the AMP Senior Youth Choir.
MASTERCLASS WITH AMP VOICE STUDENTS
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Music Project Center for Performance & Education
ROCKPORT CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
AFRICAN QUEENS
JULY 10, 2025
PRE-RECITAL DISCUSSION
Karen Slack shares her inspiration and insight into her latest commissioning project, African Queens. The program features eight newly commissioned art songs by some of today’s most acclaimed composers including – Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, and Carlos Simon. Come hear about the process of working with the composers, and the stories that became the inspiration for each song.
Rockport, MA
Shalin Liu Performance Center
ROCKPORT CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
AFRICAN QUEENS
JULY 11, 2025
RECITAL
Karen Slack joins pianist Kevin Miller for African Queens, a new project celebrating the history and legacy of seven acclaimed African queens who were revered as rulers and warriors. This brilliantly curated program featuring music by both African and American composers, strikingly represents vocal works of the past and present. Each song reflects the beauty, humility, passion and power of each Queen being celebrated. The evening centers eight new songs written for Karen by some of today’s most acclaimed composers.
Rockport, MA
Shalin Liu Performance Center
NEWPORT CLASSICAL
JULY 12, 2025
RECITAL
AFRICAN QUEENS
Karen Slack joins pianist Kevin Miller for African Queens, a new project celebrating the history and legacy of seven acclaimed African queens who were revered as rulers and warriors. This brilliantly curated program featuring music by both African and American composers, strikingly represents vocal works of the past and present. Each song reflects the beauty, humility, passion and power of each Queen being celebrated. The evening centers eight new songs written for Karen by some of today’s most acclaimed composers.
Newport, RI
The Breakers
TANGLEWOOD
JULY 27, 2025
RECITAL
AFRICAN QUEENS
Karen Slack joins pianist Kevin Miller for African Queens, a new project celebrating the history and legacy of seven acclaimed African queens who were revered as rulers and warriors. This brilliantly curated program featuring music by both African and American composers, strikingly represents vocal works of the past and present. Each song reflects the beauty, humility, passion and power of each Queen being celebrated. The evening centers eight new songs written for Karen by some of today’s most acclaimed composers.
Lenox, MA
Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning
PORTLAND OPERA
SEPTEMBER 13-14, 2025
RECITAL
AFRICAN QUEENS
Karen Slack joins pianist Kevin Miller for African Queens, a new project celebrating the history and legacy of seven acclaimed African queens who were revered as rulers and warriors. This brilliantly curated program featuring music by both African and American composers, strikingly represents vocal works of the past and present. Each song reflects the beauty, humility, passion and power of each Queen being celebrated. The evening centers eight new songs written for Karen by some of today’s most acclaimed composers.
Portland, OR
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO
SEPTEMBER 27, 2025
RECITAL
BEYOND THE YEARS
For the third and final installment of her three part series, join Lyric Unlimited’s Artist-in-Residence, Karen Slack, as she presents her Grammy-winning album, Beyond the Years. Celebrating the legacy of Florence B. Price, internationally renowned soprano Karen Slack seamlessly blends a historically overlooked musical legacy with present-day artistic excellence. This Grammy-winning, groundbreaking album features superb recordings of 19 unpublished pieces (including 16 world premiere recordings) by composer Florence B. Price.
First United Methodist Church
Chicago, IL
AMHERST COLLEGE OF MUSIC
IN RECITAL
OCTOBER 3, 2025
RECITAL
Praised for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions” by The New York Times, 2025 GRAMMY® Award and Sphinx Medal of Excellence winner soprano Karen Slack is a sought-after collaborator, curator and artistic advisor. She is joined by GRAMMY® Award-winning Pacifica Quartet, Quartet-in-residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, known for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often-daring repertory choices. — “...nothing short of phenomenal...” – The Telegraph
Buckley Recital Hall
Amherst College of Music
ONEPPO CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
OCTOBER 7, 2025
RECITAL
Bringing its signature “vibrant, highly charged playing” (NPR), the Pacifica Quartet teams up with “one of opera’s strongest voices” (The Washington Post), soprano Karen Slack, and pianist Casey Robards for an evening spotlighting Black composers. Part of the Yale School of Music's Oneppo Chamber Music Series.
IN RECITAL
Morse Recital Hall
Yale School of Music
IRIS COLLECTIVE
OCTOBER 10, 2025
RECITAL
BEYOND THE YEARS
Soprano Karen Slack makes her Iris debut with songs from her recent Grammy-winning album, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, shining a light on the groundbreaking African-American composer. Ms. Slack has been praised for performances that “ripped the audiences heart out” (Opera News). She will also be accompanied by members of the Iris Collective in a set of songs by William Grant Still titled Songs of Separation. A powerful evening filled with today’s leading voices in classical music.
Germantown Performing Arts Center
Germantown, TN
MAY 8-10, 2024
Baroque and Classical expert Jane Glover conducts this program spotlighting Mozart. Bookended by his Symphonies Nos. 35 and 39 — both full of gorgeous melodies from beginning to end — the concert features his buoyant Oboe Concerto performed by NY Phil Principal Oboe Liang Wang. Ah, perfido!, by Beethoven, one of Mozart’s most eminent heirs, is a dramatic showpiece for soprano, sung by Karen Slack.
MOZART AND BEETHOVEN WITH JANE GLOVER
New York, NY
David Geffen Hall
BACK BAY CHORALE
OCTOBER 18, 2025
CONCERT
IN CONCERT
The 50th anniversary season opens with a program celebrating the Chorale’s musical, communal, and civic legacy. This program reflects the organization's vision, spotlighting repertoire that speaks not only to our artistic evolution but also to our enduring commitment to community and justice. The Chorale is thrilled to welcome GRAMMY Award–winning soprano Karen Slack, this year’s Best Classical Solo Vocal Album winner, as a returning guest artist. Joined by chamber orchestra, the Chorale launches the season with a celebration rooted in history and lifted in song.
Old South Church
Boston, MA
BOSTON CONSERVATORY
OCTOBER 21, 2025
RECITAL
Acclaimed soprano Karen Slack presents works from her newest album, Beyond the Years. The recital will present performances of previously unknown pieces by Florence Price in collaboration with pianist Scott Nichols.
BEYOND THE YEARS
Old South Church
Boston, MA
DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
NOVEMBER 7-9, 2025
CONCERT
ALSOP CONDUCTS BRAHMS
Kathryn Bostic, award-winning composer of film, TV and Broadway music — whose accolades include being the first female African American score composer to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — pays homage to Gladys Bentley, African American blues singer of the Harlem Renaissance, in a new work featuring soloist Karen Slack.
Dallas, TX
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
CARNEGIE HALL: BETTER TOGETHER
DECEMBER 5, 2025
CONCERT
Better Together – In Celebration of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Presented by United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Office of the President of the 80th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (PGA80), and International Academy for Arts and Cultural Studies (IAA).
CARNEGIE HALL: BETTER TOGETHER UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONCERT
New York City, NY
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall
NAPLES PHILHARMONIC
JANUARY 8-9, 2026
CONCERT
Celebrated soprano Karen Slack joins the Naples Philharmonic and Artistic and Music Director Alexander Shelley for the world premiere African Queens for Soprano and Orchestra, a powerful work by seven American composers. With her powerful voice and commanding stage presence, Slack honors the strength and spirit of seven historic African queens.
NAPLES PHILHARMONIC PRESENTS NEW WORLD SYMPHONY
Naples, FL
Hayes Hall
ARIZONA CHAMBER MUSIC
JANUARY 28, 2026
RECITAL
Heralded composer Tamar-kali, whose work spans contemporary pop, classical, and film music genres, has collaborated with the Miró Quartet and soprano Karen Slack to create this special celebration of the life, times, and works of composer and pianist Margaret Bonds. The first half of the program uses the Barber String Quartet to frame a general mid-twentieth-century context for Bonds’ work. Additional repertoire features works by her teacher, Florence Price, her friend William Grant Still, and her younger contemporary George Walker. Tamar-kali’s new work, co-commissioned by Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, sets texts centered in the inspirational poetry of women of the Harlem Renaissance. Tucson Desert Song Festival is proud to include this concert in its 2026 lineup.
MIRÓ QUARTET AND KAREN SLACK
Tucson, AZ
Leo Rich Theater
SPIVEY HALL
FEBRUARY 14, 2026
RECITAL
Internationally acclaimed soprano Karen Slack joins forces with illustrious pianist Michelle Cann in a powerful recital program inspired by their 2025 Grammy® Award-winning recording, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price. This program illuminates Price’s rightful place among the great art song composers, showcasing Florence Price’s deeply expressive and historically significant works alongside lieder by Schubert and Ravel. Slack and Cann deliver a stunning tribute to Price’s artistry.
BEYOND THE YEARS
Morrow, GA
Spivey Hall
CHAMBER MUSIC CINCINNATI
FEBRUARY 17, 2026
RECITAL
At the Grammy Awards this spring, soprano Karen Slack and pianist Michelle Cann didn’t just earn a trophy for Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price. They created history. It was the first time music composed solely by a Black woman has won in that category. Ms. Slack and Ms. Cann have each performed with Chamber Music Cincinnati in recent seasons. CMC is so happy for them both and look forward to their performing selections from their winning recording.
BEYOND THE YEARS
Cincinnati, OH
Memorial Hall
PHILADELPHIA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY
FEBRUARY 22, 2026
RECITAL
For over 25 years, the Miró Quartet has performed on the world’s most prestigious stages, showcasing their “collective intelligence [and] uncanny precision” (Musical America). Their program includes excerpts from master works by Samuel Barber and Florence Price, as well as a PCMS co-commission for soprano and quartet by the genre-defying, Brooklyn-based composer Tamar-kali. The new work spotlights Philadelphia’s own soprano Karen Slack, who brings “the right mix of grace and fire” (Schmopera) to this much-anticipated local premiere.
MIRÓ QUARTET AND KAREN SLACK
Philadelphia, PA
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center
AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA
MARCH 11, 2026
CONCERT
The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is one of today’s most prolific and passionately committed presenters of new American music. As part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival, ACO and soloists perform five incisive premieres by distinctive and distinguished composers Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Suzanne Kite, Shelley Washington, Jessie Montgomery, and Brittany J. Green. As described by the ensemble, these open letters to America “reflect narratives around the summer homes of turn-of-the-century Black folk, dreams, unspoken emotions, rituals of celebration, and the connection between the historic and current patriotism of Black American women.”
HELLO, AMERICA: LETTERS TO US, FROM US
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
ORLANDO PHILHARMONIC
MAY 9-10, 2026
CONCERT
Few pieces transcend the emotional and raw power like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, a masterpiece that has inspired audiences for generations. From its stirring opening to the triumphant Ode to Joy, this iconic symphony is a true celebration of unity, hope, and the indomitable human spirit. With its soaring choral finale and unforgettable melodies, Beethoven’s Ninth is more than just a concert—it’s an emotional and uplifting journey that speaks to the soul.
BEETHOVEN'S 9TH SYMPHONY
Orlando, FL
Dr. Phililps Center
PIEDMONT OPERA
JUNE 16, 2026
CONCERT
Piedmont Opera concludes its season with Karen Slack's African Queens, a free community concert underwritten in its entirety by The John W. and Anna H. Hanes Foundation. The production is curated and performed by Grammy Award-winning soprano Karen Slack, who originated the role of Billie in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. African Queens celebrates the history and legacy of seven extraordinary African queens—revered figures whose stories remain underrepresented in Western cultural narratives. The program combines powerful new works by composers including Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Fred Onovwerosuoke, Will Liverman, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson, along with traditional repertoire, spoken word, and visual art.
AFRICAN QUEENS
Winston-Salem, NC
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