Daniel Bernard Roumain- Symphony for the Dance Floor World Premiere at ASU, Saturday February 5, 2011
Daniel Bernard Roumain is serious about having a good time. With his waist-long braids whipping through the air as he saws away at his violin, the Haitian-American performer and composer – DBR for short – brings hip-hop beats to classical music and a rock-star vibe to the concert hall. But he’s not so much a rebel as a missionary. “I wanted to marry concert music and electronic dance music, but in a responsible, artistic way,” he says. “A lot of orchestras are struggling. They’re struggling with their budget, they’re struggling with their audience, and they’re struggling with their identity. Nobody has the easy answer, but I’m the kind of person, I see a problem, I want to solve it.”
Roumain’s solution, like other 21st-century composers’, is to break down the lines between genres and between what used to be called high art and popular culture. – Kerry Lengel, The Arizona Republic
Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) returns to ASU Gammage to present an imaginative fusion of music, art and movement with the world premiere of Symphony for the Dance Floor. Featuring the raw uncompromising photography of Jonathan Mannion, best known for his soul bearing photographs of hip-hop icons such as Jay-Z, DMX, Lauryn Hill and Eminem, choreography by Millicent Johnnie and under the direction of D.J. Mendel, Symphony for the Dance Floor is a soundtrack of our time. Equally inspired by hip-hop, electronica and symphonic sounds, DBR takes us on an ecstatic journey, a glimpse outside and within ourselves brought to vivid life on the stage.
