Elementary Students Experience the Magic of Daniel Bernard Roumain

10/19/2012

Fourth and fifth grade students from McVay and Robert Frost elementary schools were treated to a very special concert on October 11 by Haitian-American Daniel Bernard Roumain, whose acclaimed work as a musician has spanned more than two decades. Proving that he’s “about as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), Roumain is perhaps the only composer whose collaborations span the worlds of Philip Glass, Cassandra Wilson, Bill T. Jones, Savion Glover and Lady Gaga.

Roumain made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 with the American Composers Orchestra performing his Harlem Essay for Orchestra, a Whitaker commission. He would go on to compose works for the Albany Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Dogs of Desire Ensemble, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, and the Stuttgart Symphony. His outreach and residencies have garnered extravagant praise and long-term relationships with countless universities, orchestras, and performing arts centers. Recent work includes a third commission for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Symphony for the Dance Floor), and a new work for the Atlanta Ballet (Home in 7) in collaboration with the choreographer Amy Seiwert and the poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Roumain earned his doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Michigan under the tutelage of William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty. The Westerville Symphony Orchestra brought him to Westerville as part of a grant received by PNC Bank.