As a multi-genre recording artist and instrumentalist, Damien Sneed is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has worked with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B legends, including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman. Among the prolific work on the “classical” side of his career, Sneed has enjoyed regular collaborations with Denyce Graves, Lawrence Brownlee, and Morris Robinson, and was recently commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to compose a reimagined adaptation of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. Damien Sneed joins WFMT to preview The Soul Within Us: Gospel, folk & jazz through art song, the program he will curate and coach for the 15 classical vocal fellows of the Steans Institute later this month. Learn more HERE.
An Interview with Damien Sneed
Playlist
George Gershwin: “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess
Jacqueline Echols McCarley, soprano
Damien Sneed, piano
Wynton Marsalis: “The Lord’s Prayer” from The Abyssinian Mass
Justin Austin, baritone
Damien Sneed, piano
Spiritual, arr. Sneed: There Is a Balm in Gilead
Jacqueline Echols McCarley, soprano
Griot String Quartet
Damien Sneed, piano
Aaron Copland, arr. Sneed: “The Little Horses” from Old American Songs, Set II
Justin Austin, baritone
Griot String Quartet
Damien Sneed, piano
Spiritual, arr. Hall Johnson: Gospel Train
Duke Ellington: Come Sunday
Spiritual, arr. Margaret Bonds: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
Jessye Norman, soprano
Damien Sneed, piano
Damien Sneed: I Dream a World
Will Liverman, baritone
Paul Sánchez, piano
Spiritual, arr. Sneed: Come By Here, Good Lord
Spiritual, arr. Sneed: Down By the Riverside
Spiritual, arr. Sneed: Deep River
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor
Damien Sneed, piano
Sneed: Beauty That is Never Old
Sneed: The Gift to Sing
Sneed: To America
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor
Kevin J. Miller, piano
Spiritual, arr. Sneed: All Night, All Day
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor
Damien Sneed, piano
