An American Story: A new commission for orchestra and narrator

Text by Kwame Alexander 
Music by Damien Geter 
Estimated running time: 12 minutes 
Lead commissioner: Chautauqua Institution

An American Story is a symphonic work for orchestra and narrator that traces the struggles and triumphs of African Americans across the arc of United States history. Written in reflection of the nation’s 250th anniversary, the piece refuses to look away from the contradictions at the heart of the American experiment – acknowledging the painful chapters that continue to echo in the present, while celebrating the resilience, progress, and hope that carry us forward. The text for the narrator is drawn from author Kwame Alexander’s award-winning works An American Story and The Undefeated – writing that speaks with precision and poetry to an experience that is, at once, uniquely Black and undeniably American. The work opens with a winding chorale that serves as its emotional and musical foundation, returning and expanding at key moments of tension and release throughout the piece. Woven into the fabric of the score are tributes to two spirituals: “Wade in the Water” and “Calvary” - the latter paired deliberately with “You’re a Grand Old Flag” to give voice to the profound dichotomy that has always defined this nation: the pageantry of celebration set against the long, unfinished struggle for true freedom for all.