Classical music isn’t something that includes culture – classical music is culture. It’s something that the composer of THIS work both understands and applies to his musical creativity. Hi there – I’m Loki Karuna and on this edition of NoteWorthy I’d like to turn your attention to the one and only Daniel Bernard Roumain.
Daniel Bernard Roumain, or DBR as he’s widely known, came onto the scene many years ago as a genre-defying solo violinist! After spending many years showing audiences what he could do with the violin, he started showing them what he could do with the his writing pen. Through his compositions, DBR not only expands the idea of solo violin music, but infuses much of his Haitian heritage into them as well. This work, called the Voodoo Violin Concerto, does just that.
In addition to writing and performing music on the cutting edge of the western classical genre, Daniel is extremely active as an arts activist, with appearances at the nation’s top demonstrations and convenings built to cultivate equity for Black people here in the U.S., and around the globe. These, and his many other activities as a musician and music creator, make Daniel Bernard Roumain an extremely NoteWorthy composer.
NoteWorthy is a production of WDAV Classical Public Radio.
Pictured: Portrait of Daniel Bernard Roumain by Christine Turner.