Chicago Classical Review“Slack’s soprano is powerfully noble and elegant, with a smoky, dark undercurrent.”
The New York Times“…the orchestra provided sensitive accompaniment for the soprano Karen Slack. Making her Philharmonic debut, she inhabited the piece’s shifting moods, from anger at a treacherous lover to vulnerability to proud resolution, with strikingly clear high notes by the end.”
BBC Music Magazine“Karen Slack’s vocal resources, which encompass soaring top notes, a gorgeously mezzo-like lower register and a predisposition towards a velvety sumptuousness.”
The Washington Post“…one of opera’s strongest voices at present — both as a singer and a shaper of its culture.”
New York Times“Warmly expressive, especially in her vibrant top.”
Parterre Box“Glamorous tone of considerable substance, well-projected text and emotion, and she coped well with the near-impossible writing.”
Praised as “one of opera’s strongest voices at present – both as a singer and a shaper of its culture” (The Washington Post) and for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions” (The New York Times), soprano Karen Slack is a sought-after performer, curator, and artistic advisor known for her fiery charisma and groundbreaking approach to engagement. Her debut album, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price on Azica Records, won a GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Throughout her career, Slack has amassed a body of work that reflects her dedication to premiering works by living composers, with a particular focus on using her platform to elevate works by Black artists. Her critically acclaimed African Queens, an evening-length vocal recital of new art songs celebrating the history and legacy of seven African queens, which has toured across North America, is now also touring as a version with full orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Naples Philharmonic. African Queens weaves historical narrative through new works by acclaimed composers Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, Joel Thompson, and Will Liverman, along with carefully selected traditional repertoire, further illuminated through passages of spoken text and thematic artwork. Presenters of African Queens so far have included co-commissioners Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, 92NY, Washington Performing Arts, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, University of Toronto, and Newport Classical Festival, as well as Portland Opera and Piedmont Opera, with future performances to include the Nashville Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony.
In July 2024, Slack released an ambitious new recording project, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, with pianist Michelle Cann in collaboration with ONEcomposer. The album comprises the unpublished songs of Florence Price, highlighting Price’s affinity with themes of faith, nature, love, and loss, and was accompanied by long-overdue published editions of Price’s music. Beyond the Years won the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, making history as the first album composed entirely of the works of a Black composer to win the award. The recital production of Beyond the Years tours nationwide and has appeared at the Yale School of Music’s Oneppo Chamber Music Series, Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, Amherst College, First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple, and Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Recent career highlights include the world premiere performances of Tamar-kali’s Pleasure Garden with the Miró Quartet for the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Kathryn Bostic’s Drag, which celebrates the life of Gladys Bentley at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; and Brittany J. Green’s Letters to America for Soprano and Orchestra, part of the American Composers Orchestra’s program Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us at Carnegie Hall. She has toured alongside the Pacifica Quartet in works by Beethoven, Price, and James Lee III – whose featured work, A Double Standard, was commissioned for Slack and the Quartet by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Detroit, and Shriver Concert Series. In 2025, Slack was featured on Shawn Okpebholo’s album Songs in Flight (Cedille Records), which explores the untold stories of runaway enslaved individuals over 12 songs with texts by poets Tsitsi Jaji, Crystal Simone Smith, and Tyehimba Jess.
Slack’s extensive work with orchestras includes her solo debut with the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Ah, Perfido! Op. 65 at David Geffen Hall, the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s Healing Tones with the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and her Carnegie Hall debut as Agnes Sorel in Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She has also championed new works through premieres with ensembles including the Nashville Symphony, where she performed Lokumbe’s The Jonah People, and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, where she presented Lokumbe’s Trials, Tears, Transcendence: The Journey of Clara Luper. Her collaborations include Jasmine Barnes’ Songs of Paul, a tribute to Paul Robeson with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Speaking Truth to Power program, alongside actor/narrator Liev Schreiber, hosted by Idagio. Additional highlights include her appearance as a soloist in Damien Geter’s Justice Symphony with the Fresno Symphony and The Washington Chorus, her debut with the Iris Collective, and performances with orchestras across the United States, including the Orlando Philharmonic, Fresno Philharmonic, Austin Symphony, and Union Symphony Orchestra in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. She has also toured South Africa with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and appeared as a featured soloist in Artis-Naples’s performance of Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, “Choral.” Her repertoire further includes major symphonic works such as Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Mahler Symphony No. 2, Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder, and Verdi’s Requiem, alongside her first performances of Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et la mer with the Omaha Symphony in collaboration with Opera Omaha. Internationally, she has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in celebration of conductor Yuri Temirkanov’s 80th birthday.
On the opera stage, Slack debuted the role of Billie in the 2019 world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. She has performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Scottish Opera, San Francisco 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. She made her debut with The Dallas Opera as Freia in Das Rheingold and appeared as Tosca at Edmonton Opera. Slack made her Houston Grand Opera debut in the world premiere of Joel Thompson and Andrea Davis Pinkney’s A Snowy Day, and, when the pandemic limited live performances during the 2020-2021 season, made virtual debuts with Houston Grand Opera, Madison Opera, and Minnesota Opera. She also starred in a new production of Driving While Black, presented by UrbanArias, and performed in recital for Opera Philadelphia. She served as Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Slack is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra, and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. In the 2024-2025 season, she served as Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Artist-in-Residence at leading entrepreneurial institution Babson College.
A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and a 2025 MPower Artist Grant, she is also the winner of numerous competitions and awards – most notably the Montserrat Caballé International Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, George London Foundation Award, Marian Anderson ICON Award, Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition, Portland Opera Lieber Award, Liederkranz Foundation Award, and the José Iturbi International Competition for Voice.
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.
2026-2027
