Musical Bridges Project | 2021

DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN (DBR)
Twin Stars: Diamond Variations for Dae’Anna
Premiered: July 9, 2021

The inaugural work in the Festival's series of commissions bridging music of different cultures with traditional Western classical chamber music features a composition by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)  — a Black, Haitian-American composer who sees composing as collaboration with artists, organizations, and communities within the framing of ideas.

"Twin Stars: Diamond Variations for Dae’Anna is a work for piano, string quartet, and two singers, that will seek to musically respond to the confrontations and conversations that have and are happening between Black men, people of color, law enforcement, and an undefined civic morality."   ⏤ DBR

Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)  composer
Marc Bamuthi Joseph  librettist
Brandie Sutton  soprano
Terrence Chin-Loy  tenor
Abeo Quartet*
Melvin Chen  piano

Twin Stars: Diamond Variations for Dae’Anna  is a commission of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival made possible through the generous support of the Desai Family Foundation.

Daniel Roumain Bernard (DBR)

Daniel Bernard Roumain’s acclaimed work as a composer, performer, educator, and activist extends more than two decades and includes collaborations spanning from Philip Glass and  Bill T. Jones to Savion Glover and Lady Gaga. Known for his signature violin sounds infused with a myriad of electronic, urban, and African-American music influences, DBR is a composer of chamber, orchestral, and operatic works; has won an Emmy for Outstanding Musical Composition for his collaborations with ESPN; is a featured keynote performer at technology conferences; and creates large scale, site-specific musical events for public spaces.  MORE

Take a look below through an archive of Musical Bridges videos and articles.