Visiblemen

I’m really intrigued by this brilliant Visible Man, and you will be too.

“Having carved a reputation for himself as an innovative composer, performer, violinist, and band leader, Haitian-American artist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) melds his classical music roots with his own cultural references and vibrant musical imagination. …”

Here are just a few impressive things that jump out at me about him and his story from the bio Gerard J. Senick.

Born c. 1971, in Skokie, IL; son of Haitian immigrants. Education: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, bachelor of music degree (cum laude), 1993; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, master of music degree, 1995; doctor of musical arts, 2000. (that’s not an easy get, this guy works hard)

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. As a youngster he listened to the country/rock band the Eagles, Swedish popsters ABBA, R&B legend Stevie Wonder, the works of Beethoven, and ethnic music from the Cuban, Bahaman, Dominican, and Puerto Rican communities in southern Florida. At the age of five he became infatuated with the violin. He began studying under the tutelage of bandleader Mitch Miller, who had a popular television series in the 1960s, and started to play in orchestras. As a sixth-grader, DBR played the electric guitar and synthesizer in his own band, which performed rock and hip-hop. As a student at Dillard High School for the Performing Arts in Sunrise, Florida, he played in the school jazz orchestra, backing such prominent musicians as Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Charles. After graduating from high school, DBR almost skipped college because he was producing and playing for the notoriously ribald Florida rap group 2Live Crew. Eventually, DBR’s father convinced him to attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he was awarded a full scholarship. Majoring in composition, he graduated with honors in 1993, and then earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he also conducted classical works. In 1998 he headed for New York City, settling in Harlem, a place with a rich political and cultural heritage that influenced his music.

If he’s pushing the bounds of classical music, he’s also re-examining its roots.” Daniel Levine of the Nashville Scene observed, “Roumain renders the classical gestures and parts of his works in a spirited way that maintains their historical authority. Yet his manner of playing the violin-moving about the stage, tapping accompanying rhythms with his bow on the bridge, vocalizing as he forcefully draws a chord-makes the audience feel his urge for wider musical latitude.”

DBR confided to Kozinn, “I used to be a black man. Then I became a black American composer. But if you ask me today how I feel, I’ll tell you that I feel like a very lucky young man. … I’ve been able to combine the music I grew up with … and, in some ways, to be an ambassador, certainly for what’s going on in Harlem, where I live, but also for what’s going on in contemporary classical music. I think contemporary classical music has found its soul, or maybe regained its soul and found its heart.” He told Paul Boakye of Drum, “I’ve had a lot of critical success in the classical music world. My application and responsibility as a black composer is now to create opportunities for other composers.” Speaking to Dina Di Maio of the Square Table, DBR confided, “Statistically speaking, I should be in prison–young, black, single; music is my ‘anti-drug.’ So, it’s not an exaggeration to say that music both changed my life and saved my life. I hope music plays the same role for my students.” He concluded to Boakye, “For me the arts are like a religion. It’s like this friend, literally, that I’ve had all these years. I still have and play the same violin I played when I was five years old. … This inanimate object, the violin, has been the one constant thing in my life.”

Education. Involved and active parents. Passion. Hard work. Creating his own path. Music. Sharing his gift with the world. Success!

Read more: http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004536/Daniel-Bernard-Roumain.html#ixzz0kTe6HfMh