Marti Slaten, soprano

Soprano Marti Slaten’s artistry is at home in English language works, especially black art music. An “elegant singer” with “excellent diction and the stance of dignified restraint” (William Bolcom), and a “standout” (The Classical Review) with a “striking ability to snap between characters on a dime” (National Sawdust), Marti thrives singing and supporting singers. 

Singing “Watch and Pray” (Undine Smith Moore) at Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall. Sara Beth Turner Photography

She is a recitalist who has been soloist with Melodeon, The Fisk Jubilee Singers, Opera Noire of New York, and Harlem Opera Theater, and has been a chorister with New York City Opera and the Opera Orchestra of New York. She is also a choral adjudicator and clinician with Worldstrides Heritage Festivals.

Marti’s repertoire foregrounds themes of African American life, power subversion, and sacred expression. Performance highlights include Anna Nicole (Mark Anthony Turnage), From the Diary of Sally Hemings (William Bolcom), Honey and Rue (Andre Previn), Mass in G (Schubert), and recitals of concert spirituals by Undine Smith Moore and Hall Johnson. Favorite roles include Treemonisha (Treemonisha), Mimi (La Boheme), Governess (Turn of the Screw), Glinda (The Wiz), Mama Euralie (Once on This Island), and Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro). The stages of the Met Opera Guild, Harris Concert Hall, New York Historical Society, Wheeler Opera House, Carnegie Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music have featured Marti’s performances.

“Anna Nicole” (Turnage) is reminder and a warning that the hard lessons of Anna Nicole Smith’s life have yet to be learned by the United States. Sara Krulwich, The New York Times

She first experienced singing as self-expression growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, admiring Whitney Houston and Kathleen Battle while singing in the CCM Children’s Choir and the May Festival Youth Chorus. Studying voice performance and African American studies Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Oberlin College led her to Aspen Music Festival and into a stint in academia, earning graduate degrees and teaching at Columbia University. Marti’s devotion to supporting and protecting the virtuosity of marginalized musicians, inspired her to co-found the Oberlin Conservatory Black Musicians’ Guild and the Harry T. Burleigh Society. 

Enjoying the Hudson Valley with her husband Whitney and their son Wesley is one of her truest joys.