Monday, February 9, 2009

'Darwin's Meditation for the People of Lincoln' by DBR, Feb. 12 Storrs, CT; Trailer on YouTube

[Etudes4Violin&Electronix; Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)]

The Haitian-American composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) tells AfriClassical of a work commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in honor of the Darwin Bicentennial:
Daniel Bernard Roumain
February 12, 2009 8 pm
A Special Bicentennial Concert
A Quartet Concerto Conceived and Composed by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) Directed by D.J. Mendel and DBR
"DBR combines a rock-star persona with a musical approach that does for amplified violin what Jimi Hendrix did for electric guitar."—The Australian 
Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln—two extraordinary men—were born within hours of one another on the same auspicious day of February 12, 1809. If one traced the origin of the human species, the other set its destination in motion. In Darwin's Meditation for The People of Lincoln, composer/musician Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) brings them toe-to-toe for a lush, orchestral event of historic proportions. 

A grandly conceived work that employs the expansiveness of an eighteen-piece chamber orchestra conducted by Paul Haas, together with four arresting soloists—DBR (violin), Wynne Bennett (prepared piano), Daniel Beaty (spoken word), and Emeline Michel (voice)—Darwin's Meditation for The People of Lincoln sculpts the sound of liberation, survival, and legacy in the image of two of its most tireless proponents. Using texts drawn from both Darwin and Lincoln, plus those of Obie Award-winning playwright Daniel Beaty, DBR creates a brilliantly imagined conversation between two historical giants—and a scintillating, spiritual, sonic vision of what it means to be free. "The work was everything I had hoped for...as intellectually alluring as it was emotionally powerful." - Barry Pearson, Kirkland Fine Arts Center, Co-Commissioner
Presented in conjunction with the University of Connecticut Year of Science 2009 Celebration 
Commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in honor of the Darwin Bicentennial





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