Category Archives: Exhibit tie-in

Black Composers Matter : Daniel Bernard Roumain

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Daniel Bernard Roumain (aka DBR)
b. 1970

Haitian-American composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (aka DBR) was born in Skokie, Illinois. His family moved to Fort Lauderdale Florida subsequently. As a first-generation American, DBR’s family home was filled with Haitian folk music and his family encouraged him to listen to a variety of classical and contemporary music.

He discovered the violin at age 5. In junior high school, he formed his own rock / hip-hop band playing guitar and synthesizer.
He majored in music composition at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and continued his studies at the University of Michigan where he earned both his masters and doctoral degrees.

DBR is an innovative composer, performer, activist and educator. His works blend hip-hop, funk, rock and classical music into genre defying, energetic and experimental forms. He has collaborated with many orchestras and chamber ensembles around the world. His eclectic musical interests are reflected in the fact that he has collaborated with all manner of artists like Philip Glass, Lady Gaga, Bill T. Jones, DJ Spooky, and Cassandra Wilson.

DBR music workshop photo

DBR taking an unconventional approach to violin playing in a 2012 workshop .

Here’s a quote from Roumain’s website that gives a nice overview of the width and breadth of his work to date:
“Known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic, urban, and African-American music influences, DBR takes his genre-bending music beyond the proscenium. He is a composer of chamber, orchestral, and operatic works; has won an Emmy for Outstanding Musical Composition for his collaborations with ESPN; featured as keynote performer at technology conferences; and created large scale, site-specific musical events for public spaces.”

And here is link to an NPR piece about the 2017 premiere of We Shall Not Be Moved – an opera about the 1985 bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia :


If you’d like to learn more about DBR, here are some items from our collection:

* Revolutionary Rhythm (CD)

* Liasons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano (CD and also Score)

* Blues Dialogues: Music By Black Composers (CD)

* Homegoings (Documentary Film scored by Roumain, available to stream via Alexander Street Press)

Homegoings film poster

* You can also follow DBR on social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Spotify.

Black Composers Matter

Black Composers Matter: Zenobia Powell Perry

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Editor’s note: In conjunction with the current “Black Composers Matter” display at the Music Library, I – your friendly neighborhood Music Library Associate – had a great time researching for it and I thought it might be nice to showcase the Black Composers highlighted therein. Things that are linked will take you to additional relevant information or to OneSearch for library-owned materials.

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Zenobia Powell Perry
(October 3, 1908 – January 17, 2004)

Perry was born in Boley, Oklahoma into a well-educated, middle class family. Her grandfather, who had been enslaved, sang her traditional spirituals as a child, which later influenced her work.

When she was about 7 years old, she met Booker T. Washington and sang for him at his appearance in Boley on August 22, 1915. She won a piano competition in 1919, and also learned to play violin.

Perry went on to study music at Berryman Conservatory in Nebraska and the Hampton Institute in Virginia. In 1935, she started at the Tuskegee Institute where she studied with composer William L. Dawson, who encouraged her to compose original work. She graduated from Tuskegee in 1938.

After Tuskegee, Perry became part of a Black teacher training program which was headed by Eleanor Roosevelt (who helped to fund Perry’s graduate studies).

Perry (left) with music students and teachers in 1949.

Perry worked as a professor at several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including Central State University in Ohio.

She did not seriously begin composing until she was in her 40s. Her music is classical with some jazz and folk influence. She wrote an opera Tawana House (first performed in 1987 and revived in 2014), as well as works for voice, orchestra, band and a mass.

American Composer Zenobia Powell Perry

If you’d like to learn more about her, here are some items about Perry from the Music Library’s collection:

* American Composer Zenobia Powell Perry: Race and Gender in the 20th Century by Jeannie Gayle Pool (Book)

* Soulscapes: Piano Music by African American Women (CD)

* Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music (1893-1990) edited by Helen Walker-Hill (Score)

* You can also find her works by searching on streaming services like Spotify or Youtube!

Black Composers Matter