Karen Slack Prepares For Final Recital Of Her Lyric Unlimited Residency

Soprano Karen Slack is completing her Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence with a final recital on June 14. Photo by Kia Caldwell.
Soprano Karen Slack is completing her Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence with a final recital on June 14. Photo by Kia Caldwell.

Karen Slack Prepares For Final Recital Of Her Lyric Unlimited Residency

By Tia Carol Jones

Karen Slack has been the Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence for the 2024-2025 season. As her time as the artist-in-residence comes to a close, she said it has been a joy to work with the Lyric Unlimited team and be in Chicago.

 She said it was an honor to meet the young singers during her workshops. She said she enjoyed taking Opera and classical music out of the walls of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and bringing it to the people in the city.

Slack will perform her final recital, Beyond the Years, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 11th, at the Chicago Temple, located at 77 W. Washington.

Slack said she is sad that the residency is not continuing on for another year, because she feels like it was just getting started. She feels the work she was doing with the residency, bringing art to the public, is important and necessary. She said she is very proud to have been able to represent the Lyric Unlimited this season.

Slack said one of her fondest moments of her residency was performing her first recital, Of Thee I Sing! Songs of Love & Justice, in the foyer of the Lyric Opera, after the election. She said the recital and rehearsals were very emotional, because the premise of the recital was humanity and what is missing in society.

“I thought that the evening was quite successful, because I think we were all on one accord as a community, as an audience, about all of the things that were happening in America at the time that we are seeing images of people, within marginalized communities, so that was very powerful for me,” she said.

Slack said that citizen artists within Classical music need to be supported in speaking about social justice and lending their voice to shine a light on things that are happening in the world. Slack also visited a school where she spoke to students about Opera. It was special for her because she remembered being a student and having experienced Classical music and Opera for the first time and how it changed her life.

 For that reason, she always sees herself when she is speaking to young people about Classical music, because she said if one young person gets the spark and wants to pursue Classical music, it is a win for the art form. She also recalled the masterclasses she did with young singers and said being able to inspire them and give them tools really resonated with her.

With Beyond the Years, which is also the title of her Grammy award winning album, audiences can expect beautiful music. She said it is very different than her other two recitals. It features the unpublished songs of composer Florence Price, who has ties to Chicago.

Slack said she was very intentional in pairing Price’s piece with songs by composers Maurice Ravel and Robert Schumann. She said she wanted to make sure that people understand that Price’s music is no different than these European composers.

“Her music can stand the test of time, and her music can stand up equally to the great European composers,” she said. She added that it is a joy to be able to share Price’s music with an audience.

Slack said when she found out she and Michelle Cann were nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Beyond the Years, she was emotional. She said when creating the project, she wasn’t doing it for the accolades, she was creating it because she wanted to share it with the world.

She said she was intentional in doing unpublished pieces and putting her unique stamp on it. She said when she heard her name called at the awards ceremony, it was like an out of body experience. While Slack has been singing Opera for 20 years, Beyond the Years is her debut album.

“I took a chance to record unpublished songs of all Florence Price … I took a risk and it worked out, I won,” she said.

Slack said she hopes that the Chicago community pushes for large arts institutions to serve them. She said herself and Afton Battle, Vice President of the Lyric Unlimited & Artistic Operations, along with the Lyric Unlimited team, were proud of delivering high art and excellence into the community. She said the residency was put together with the community in mind. She hopes that the audiences who were inspired and touched by what they did with the residency, demand that they receive more of that.

For more information about the Lyric Opera of Chicago, visit www.lyricopera.org. For more information about Karen Slack, visit sopranokarenslack.com.

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