A composer, performer, violinist, and bandleader, Haitian-American artist Daniel Bernard Roumain (known as DBR) melds his classical music roots with his own cultural references and vibrant musical imagination. His compositions range from orchestral scores and chamber pieces to music for film, the theater, modern dance, and electronica. In 2007 DBR premiered One Loss Plus, a multimedia work representing the first of three commissions from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) for their Next Wave Festival. His latest orchestral work and second BAM commission, Darwin’s Meditation for The People of Lincoln, is a musical setting of Daniel Beaty’s pocket play that explores an imagined conversation between Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln, and the political relationship between England, North America, and Haiti. The work was subsequently performed at the University of Connecticut on February 12, 2009—the shared bicentennial anniversary of the birth of both icons. DBR was recently selected by the Sphinx Commissioning Consortium, an alliance between Sphinx and nine other American orchestras (Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville, New Jersey, New World, Philadelphia, Richmond, Rochester, and Virginia) to compose a new orchestral work to premiere in 2010. Recent performances and commissions include Five Chairs and One Table, a commissioned work for Imani Winds that premiered at Carnegie Hall; WE MARCH!, a guitar concerto featuring Eliot Fisk and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra; The Tuscaloosa Meditations, commissioned by the University of Alabama in honor of Vivian Malone Jones; Voodoo Violin Concerto, a virtuosic handling of DBR’s Haitian heritage premiered by the Vermont Youth Orchestra; Double Quartet: The Kompa Variations, an exploration of Haitian kompa music for the Providence String Quartet and a student quartet; and newly commissioned works for the Florida Youth Orchestra, Ahn Trio, and Claremont Trio. DBR has composed music for Daniel Beaty’s play Resurrection directed by Oz Scott; ESPN’s E:60 Homeless Basketball, which earned a Sports Emmy nomination for musical composition; and the documentary films Strange Things by Alexandria Hammond and Off and Running by Nicole Opper (premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival) which will air nationally on PBS in 2010. From Australia’s Sydney Opera House to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, DBR continues to perform music from his debut international solo album etudes4violin&electronix (Thirsty Ear Recordings) in a worldwide tour with Elan Vytal, aka DJ Scientific. The album showcases a unified dialogue between DBR and such artists as Philip Glass, Ryuichi Sakamoto, DJ Spooky, and DJ Scientific. Bandleader of DBR & The Mission, he and the multi?cultural ensemble made their international debut at Australia’s 2008 Adelaide Festival. DBR is visiting associate professor of composition at his alma mater, Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He is also the artist?in?residence of the Starbucks-sponsored Seattle Theater Group and music director of Seattle’s “More Music @ The Moore”program. He recently collaborated and performed with Lady Gaga on Fox’s American Idol. A native of Margate, Florida, DBR studied music as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, completing his master’s and doctoral work at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom. For more information, visit dbrmusic.com.
![[Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)]](/images/_images/_musicians/DanielBernardRoumainx95.jpg)
