NEW YORK – Harlem-based composer/performer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) premieres new multi-genre works from his international debut solo album etudes4violin&electronix (Thirsty Ear Records) in a seven-city tour kicking off February 1st at the University of Chicago, making a stop down under at the Sydney Opera House, and culminating in DBR’s native South Florida at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
DBR is a Haitian-American, originally from South Florida; he was raised in Margate, Florida, where his parents still reside today; he attended Dillard High School for the Performing Arts; a Knight Award recipient; and one of his first jobs was working for 2 Live Crew in South Florida.
DBR is scheduled to perform Wednesday, April 2nd @ 7:30pm. Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts at the Marshall E. Rinker, Sr. Playhouse, 701 Ockeechobee Blvd. West Palm Beach
Joined by his longtime collaborator and DJ/laptopist Elan Vytal aka DJ Scientific, DBR brings etudes4violin&electronix to the stage with a virtuosic hybrid of electronica, hip-hop, and classical music in an interweaving exchange of styles and genres.
Elan Vytal and DBR
Known for fusing classical music roots with a myriad of soundscapes, etudes4violin&electronix is for discerning new music lovers with a penchant for progressive electronic music. Along with DBR’s intricate series of solo works, etudes4violin&electronix features pulsing duets with world-class musicians Philip Glass, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid.
Since its release in June 2007, etudes4violin&electronix has received numerous raves and accolades: “brilliant” (Boston Globe); “completely uplifting and [will] sweep you off your feet” (All About Jazz); “polystylistic—part classical, part electronica, part house— and it speaks through all genres with equal confidence” (Palm Beach Post), and Blogcritics.org adds, “I’ve been listening to this record on and off for several months now. Each time, my local attention dissolves as I float up into the world of its possibilities…”
DBR has carved a reputation for himself as a passionately innovative violinist, band leader, and composer. From premiering a ground-breaking fusion of incompatible cultures and instruments with DJ Scientific in DBR’s Sonata for Violin and Turntables at the Melbourne Arts Festival and Vancouver’s PuSh Festival, to jamming with his nine-member ensemble, DBR & THE MISSION, at Joe’s Pub, Washington DC’s Library of Congress, and Notre Dame, DBR serves as a classical-urban ambassador for a widening global audience.
His dramatic pieces range from orchestral scores and energetic chamber works to rock songs and electronica. He has collaborated with Vernon Reid, Savion Glover, Susan Sarandon, Cassandra Wilson, and an array of orchestras and chamber ensembles.
Current projects include his 2007 debut season at BAM’s Next Wave Festival featuring One Loss Plus (his fifth evening-length solo show); 24 Bits: Hip Hop Studies and Etudes and Event Pieces performed by DBR on piano and laptop; and Call Them All: Fantasy Projections for Film, Laptop, and Orchestra, his latest orchestral work which received its world premiere at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall by the American Composers Orchestra.
