An African American violinist, composer, musician, performer, recording artist, educator, lecturer,
and record company founder, Daniel Bernard Roumain is considered a rising star, a classical
composer who is changing the face of concert music through his affinity for contemporary sounds
and his distinctive visual appearance. Roumain (who goes by his initials, DBR) has been credited
with helping to redefine the form and broaden the scope of classical music, giving it a fresh relevance, especially among young people.
Born in Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, DBR moved to southern Florida as a small child and
grew up in the Fort Lauderdale area. His parents, immigrants from Haiti, had a strong impact on
his musical development. They introduced him to Haitian folk music as well as to a wide variety of classical and contemporary music.
Daniel Roumain's acclaimed work as a composer and a performer has spanned more than two
decades, and has been commissioned by venerable artists and institutions worldwide. Proving
that he's "about as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets" (New York Times), Roumain is
perhaps the only composer whose collaborations span the worlds of Philip Glass, Cassandra Wilson,
Savion Glover and Lady Gaga.
DBR went on to meet dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones, who directed the Bill T. Jones/Arnie
Zanes Dance Company. Jones commissioned DBR to write the music for The Breathing Show
(1999), a program that blended movement, music, and film. It also included an improvised duet
between DBR and Jones, where the latter danced to the music of the former. DBR has credited Jones
with helping him to learn performance skills. In 2002 DBR became the musical director of the
company, the first in its 20-year history.
Roumain made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 with the American Composers Orchestra
performinghis Harlem Essay for Orchestra, a Whitaker commission. He would go on to compose
works for the Albany Symphony.
From 2007-2011, Roumain was a Next Wave Artist-in-Residence at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), resulting in three commissioned works in One Loss Plus (2007); Darwin's Meditation for the People of Lincoln (2008); and Symphony for the Dance Floor (2011).
For the 2012-13 season, Roumain created The Collide, in collaboration with the singer/songwriter
Laurelyn Dosset. A commission from North Carolina State University, the project included the
creation of 11 songs and 1 instrumental as musical portraits of selected cities in North Carolina
As a band leader, he presents lively, genre-jumping shows with DBR & THE MISSION; nine young,
multi-cultural musicians including an amplified string quartet drum kit, keyboard, DJ, and laptops.
He received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music and earned
a doctorate in musical composition from the University of Michigan.
http://www.danielroumain.com/#!info/bio/
http://www.answers.com/topic/daniel-bernard-roumain#ixzz313couXs9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Bernard_Roumain
