Praised as “one of opera’s strongest voices at present – both as a singer and a shaper of its culture” (The Washington Post), soprano Karen Slack is a sought-after curator and artistic advisor known for her fiery charisma and groundbreaking approach to engagement. Her debut album, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, released on Azica Records, won the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

Throughout her career, Slack has amassed a body of work that reflects her dedication to premiering works by living composers, with a particular focus on using her platform to elevate works by Black artists. Her critically acclaimed African Queens, an evening-length vocal recital of new art songs celebrating the history and legacy of seven African queens, has toured across North America and is now also touring as a version with full orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Naples Philharmonic. Presenters have included co-commissioners Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, 92NY, Washington Performing Arts, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, University of Toronto, and Newport Classical Festival, as well as Portland Opera and Piedmont Opera, with future performances to include Elevate Vocal Arts, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, and Pacific Symphony.

Slack’s 2026-2027 season also features the world premiere of Shawn Okpebholo’s What the Earth Remembers with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and Handel Choir of Baltimore, and a new commission from Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest by Damien Geter and Jessica Murphy Moo titled Love Signs: Songs of the Zodiac. Slack also curates special recitals at the Curtis Institute of Music and Wheaton College, and hosts a vocal residency at Interlochen.

In July 2024, Slack released an ambitious new recording project, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, with pianist Michelle Cann in collaboration with ONEcomposer. The album comprises the unpublished songs of Florence Price and won the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, marking the first time an album featuring the work of a Black composer received the award. In 2025, Slack was featured on Shawn Okpebholo’s album Songs in Flight, released with Cedille Records. When the pandemic limited live performances during the 2020-2021 season, Slack made digital debut appearances with Houston Grand Opera, Madison Opera, and Minnesota Opera. She starred in a new production of the opera Driving While Black, presented by UrbanArias, and launched a digital talk show, #kikikonversations, drawing acclaim from Opera News and The New York Times.

Karen Slack has performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Scottish Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Austin Opera, New Orleans Opera, Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Madison Opera, and Arizona Opera, among others, and debuted the role of Billie in the 2019 world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. She made her New York Philharmonic debut in May 2024, her Carnegie Hall debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s Healing Tones with conductor YannicK Nézet-Séguin. Abroad, she has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the 2025 MPower Artist Grant, Slack serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. In the 2024-2025 season, she served as Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Artist-in-Residence at the leading entrepreneurial institution Babson College. A native Philadelphian, Slack is a graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, as well as the Adler Fellowship and the Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera.