Woodbox Beats & Balladry


TEDxSMU, in association with TITAS, AT&T Performing Arts Center,
& SMU Meadows School of the Arts, Presents


Woodbox Beats & Balladry

by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)

feat. Elan Vytal aka DJ Scientific

Saturday, October 16, 2010
7:00-7:30 pm
Free & open to the public

“…about as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets.” – New York Times

“He takes his classical roots, stands them on their ends, and injects hip-hop, electronics, scratching, hard rock and more personality than you could ever imagine.” – Iowa Gazette

As part of the first-ever Dallas Idea Week, TEDxSMU, TITAS, AT&T Performing Arts Center and the SMU Meadows School of the Arts are offering a free, public outdoor concert featuring Daniel Bernard Roumain and DJ Scientific at the Reflecting Pool of the Winspear Opera House. Join us at 7:00 pm for the free 30 minute show, then plan to stay for the Dallas Film Society’s presentation of Casablanca in Strauss Square (details coming soon). Cash bar for refreshments.

Note: The Winspear Lobby will be closed for a private event inside.

Listen to music from Woodbox Beats & Balladry.

PROGRAM NOTES:

Haitian-American violinist/composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) continues to establish himself as one of today’s most relevant artists on the contemporary classical music scene.  An innovative violinist, composer, performer, re-mixer, and band leader, DBR has won world-wide acclaim for his eclecticism and fearless exploration, whether through extended violin techniques, the infusion of electronics, or in his perspectives on the definition of chamber music.

The concert features tracks from his latest album, Woodbox Beats & Balladry (Thirsty Ear Recordings). In Woodbox Beats & Balladry, DBR’s profusion of classical composing and performing talents are uniquely exposed.  Echoing his own career, the music contains elements of classical minimalism, dance club beats, traditional ballads, and thick distorted noise.  Fitting coming from an artist who has performed with everyone from the Seattle and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, to the dancers Bill T. Jones and Savion Glover, to the composers Philip Glass and Derek Bermel, to DJs Radar, Scientific, and Spooky, to the jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, the pop-singer Lady Gaga, and the infamous 2 Live Crew.

Woodbox Beats & Balladry is aggressive, danceable, and fully annotated.  DBR’s style and compositional process are reflected in his scoring of each and every track on the album; he uses a variety of compositional techniques and notation systems, including traditional, numerical, graphic, and prose-based notation.  Woodbox Beats & Balladry is an amalgam of what contemporary composers are doing and where contemporary classical music might be going,” says DBR.

The core of the performance is DBR’s signature custom 6-string amplified violin.  While utilizing an array of extended techniques, effect pedals, and additional MAC-based processing, DBR’s frequent aggressive, percussive lower-string bowing (an extra two strings are added to his instrument for bass lines) makes his violin a vital sonic and compositional force.

Woodbox Beats & Balladry features all original material and arrangements composed and performed by DBR and his long time collaborator, Elan Vytal aka DJ Scientific.  As an example of how contemporary classical structure collides with experimental electronic dance music, DBR’s Sonata for Violin and Turntables is a musical exploration between classical, concert music in the violin and hip-hop, commercial music in the turntables. “It’s an attempt to honor not only the first and second Viennese schools of Europe, but to pay tribute to the Bronx and the waves of inventions that that music sent to us,” explains DBR.  Since DBR and his DJ/collaborator, Elan Vytal, have been touring Sonata for Violin and Turntables, the project has received critical praise.  The Boston Globe said, “Both performers brought a combination of unabashed earnestness and quicksilver musical wit.” The Washington Post raved, “The music was involving, tonal and eminently accessible, steeped in the wash-rinse-repeat cycle of minimalism but sexed up considerably with hip-hop rhythms, jazz riffs and imaginative collaboration.”