'An African American Requiem' mourns Tyre Nichols and thousands of other Black Americans

Composer Damien Geter said he wrote the service in 2016 as a response to racial violence, or “modern-day lynchings,” and to pay tribute to Black people killed disproportionately for hundreds of years.

The details of Tyre Nichols's death, after being beaten by police officers in Memphis, unfolded as the Fort Worth Opera rehearsed at TCU's Van Cliburn Concert Hall.

The performance took place Jan. 28.

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Maestro Damien Geter begins rehearsal for "An African American Requiem" with the Fort Worth Symphony Jan. 26, 2023, presented by the Fort Worth Opera at TCU's Van Cliburn Concert Hall. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

"An African American Requiem" opens as a traditional funeral Mass in Latin, sung by the Fort Worth Opera Chorus, with a combination of classical opera, gospel, spiritual and jazz. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Damien Geter, "An African American Requiem"

Geter conducts the oratorio, or concert, which features the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, soloists Karmesha K.Peake, mezzo-soprano; Brandie Sutton, soprano; Thomas Cannon, baritone; Bernard Holcomb, tenor; and the Fort Worth Opera Chorus. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Listen to Fort Worth Opera Chorus.

Tenor Bernard Holcomb, left, and conductor/composer Geter, right, rehearse "An African American Requiem" with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Holcomb also sang in the Portland, Oregon, premiere last year. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Tenor Bernard Holcomb, left, and conductor/composer Geter, right, rehearse "An African American Requiem" with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Holcomb also sang in the Portland Oregon, premiere last year. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Geter, left, directs soprano soloist Brandie Sutton, right, in "An African American Requiem" with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Fort Worth Opera Chorus. A hologram of Sutton, dressed and singing as an enslaved woman, is in the permanent collection of the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Production Director Justin Miller, left, and Fort Worth Opera Associate Artistic Director and Chorus Master Alfrelynn Roberts, right, assess the acoustic quality of the hall during rehearsal. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Baritone Thomas Cannon, with ties to North Texas, is a soloist for the requiem. He starred as Porgy in the Fort Worth Opera's 2019 production of "Porgy and Bess." (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Soloist mezzo-soprano Karmesha K. Peake sang all three performances of the requiem--at the Portland, Oregon, premiere; the Kennedy Center; and TCU. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Gregory McDaniel assists Geter in fine-tuning the balance of vocals and instruments. McDaniel is a student at the University of North Texas in Denton studying orchestra conducting. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Left to right, Cannon, Holcomb and Geter look to McDaniel for his feedback. (Sally Verrando/ Staff Photographer)

Various remedies have been suggested to abolish the lynching infamy, but year after year, the butchery of men, women and children continues in spite of plea and protest.
Ida B. Wells, “Lynching is a Color-Line Murder," 1909

Geter added Eric Garner's and Ida B. Wells's words as modern lyrics to his classical composition. Wells posthumously received a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for her reports on lynching.

I can’t breathe.
Last words of Eric Garner, who died in 2014.

Stage manager Kathleen Stakenas, left, takes timing notes while poet S. Renee Mitchell, right, waits for her cue to speak of resilience. She said in a video interview with the Fort Worth Opera that it was her way to show Black youth what is possible. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Jennifer Corning Lucio of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra continues to practice her oboe after rehearsal. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Rehearsal over, the featured artists call it a night so they can return again for one more rehearsal, then the performance. Left to right: Peake, Cannon, Geter, Holcomb and Sutton. (Sally Verrando/Staff Photographer)

Let us undertake the work of making the ‘law of the land’ effective and supreme upon every foot of American soil—a shield to the innocent; and to the guilty, punishment swift and sure.
Ida B. Wells, “Lynching is a Color-Line Murder,” 1909