ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT ANNOUNCES GRAMMY-WINNING SOPRANO KAREN SLACK AS 2025 SUMMER SERIES ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
MS. SLACK’S RESIDENCY TO INCLUDE MASTERCLASSES, FIRESIDE PERFORMANCE & INTERVIEW, AND WORLD PREMIERE SOLO WITH AMP SUMMER SERIES FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
(Atlanta, GA) (May 5, 2025) — 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 with Terrance McKnight.” Ms. Slack will also conduct masterclasses with AMP voice students and the AMP Senior Youth Choir.
Ms. Slack’s residency will culminate in her appearance as featured soloist at the Opening Night concert of the 2025 AMP Summer Series, where she will perform solos with the AMP Summer Series Festival Choir. With the AMP Summer Series Festival Orchestra she will also perform operatic arias and the world premiere of unpublished songs by Florence Price for soprano and orchestra. The orchestra will be under the direction of John Young Shik Concklin and the choir under the direction of Dr. Kay Pace.
“We are honored to welcome Karen Slack as Artist-in-Residence for the upcoming Atlanta Music Project Summer Series,” stated Dantes Rameau, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlanta Music Project. He continued, “Ms. Slack’s incredibly generous spirit will inspire our young musicians, and her world-class artistry will enchant our audience members and community.”
Karen Slack stated, “I have deep admiration for the mission of the Atlanta Music Project. My teachers and mentors were so important to my development as an artist, and so I look forward to paying it forward at AMP. I am excited to work with their students and faculty this summer to make wonderful music together.”
Ms. Slack has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Scottish Opera, and many others. In concert, her credits include the Melbourne and Sydney symphonies, Bergen Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, and Philadelphia Orchestra. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in May 2024.
A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and 2025 MPower Artist Grant, Slack is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra and Astral Artists, and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In the 2024-2025 season, she serves as Artist-in-Residence at both Lyric Opera of Chicago and Babson College.
A native Philadelphian, Slack is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program.
Celebrating its tenth year, the Atlanta Music Project Summer Series is a 4-week music festival and school based in Southwest Atlanta. The 2025 AMP Summer Series will feature symphony orchestra, string orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, chamber ensembles, and several concerts by AMP students, faculty, and guest artists. The AMP Summer Series serves novice, intermediate, and advanced musicians in grades 4 through 12.
Ms. Slack’s AMP Summer Series residency schedule is as follows:
June 4
Masterclass with AMP Senior Youth Choir (Private Event)
June 5
Mentorship Session with AMP Summer Series Students (Private Event)
June 5 | 6:30pm
Fireside Performance & Interview
Fireside Performance & Interview with Karen Slack & Terrance McKnight
Atlanta Music Project Center for Performance & Education
883 Dill Ave SW Atlanta, GA 30310
June 6 | 7:00pm
Opening Night 2025 AMP Summer Series
Karen Slack, soprano
John Young Shik Concklin, conductor
Dr. Kay Pace, conductor
AMP Summer Series Festival Orchestra & Choir
Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church
1660 N. Decatur Rd Atlanta, GA 30307
June 7 | 10:00am
Masterclass with AMP Voice Students
Karen Slack, soprano
Atlanta Music Project Center for Performance & Education
883 Dill Ave SW Atlanta, GA 30310
About Karen Slack
Praised for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions” (The New York Times), Karen Slack is “not only one of the nation’s most celebrated sopranos, but a leading voice in changing and making spaces in classical music” (Trilloquy). Her debut album, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price on Azica Records, won the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
In the high point of her 2024-2025 season, Slack embarks on a nationwide tour of her new commissioning project, African Queens, an evening-length vocal recital of new art songs celebrating the history and legacy of seven African queens revered as rulers but not widely heralded in the Western world. Featuring new works by acclaimed composers Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon and Joel Thompson Slack performs the world premiere of African Queens at the Ravinia Festival, followed by performances at co-commissioners Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, 92NY, Washington Performing Arts, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, University of Toronto, and Newport Classical Festival. Beyond the Years, her debut recording project featuring unpublished songs by Florence Price, developed in collaboration with ONEcomposer and pianist Michelle Cann, was released on Azica Records in July 2024.
Over recent seasons, Slack has amassed a body of work reflecting her dedication to premiering works by living composers, with particular focus on using her platform to elevate works by Black artists. When the pandemic limited live performances during the 2020-2021 season, Slack made premiere digital performances with Houston Grand Opera, Madison Opera, and Minnesota Opera. She starred in a new production of the opera Driving While Black, presented by UrbanArias, and launched a digital talk show, #kikikonversations, drawing acclaim from Opera News and The New York Times.
Karen Slack has performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Scottish Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Austin Opera, New Orleans Opera, Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Madison Opera and Arizona Opera, among others. Abroad, she has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Slack made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s Healing Tones with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in May 2024.
A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and 2025 MPower Artist Grant, Slack is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra and Astral Artists, and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. She has been named Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago for the 2024-2025 season as well as Artist-in-Residence at leading entrepreneurial institution Babson College.
A native Philadelphian, Slack is a graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, as well as the Adler Fellowship and the Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera. For more information, please visit www.sopranokarenslack.com
