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02.2012
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09.2011 - part 2
09.2011
06.2011
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04.2011 - part 2
04.2011
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01.2010 - Our Haiti
12.2009
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02.2009

Recent Chamber Music Commissions

Below is a list of recently commissioned works for chamber music ensembles. If you are interested in commissioning DBR to write a new chamber work, contact DBR Music Productions. For a complete list of chamber music works, click on the "sheetmusic" link on the left.

Five Chairs and One Table

Commissioned by Carnegie Hall under the artistic guidance of Jessye Norman for the Honor! Festival, Five Chairs and One Table is a woodwind quiet written for Imani Winds. Conceived as musical portraits of the South African singer an dcivil rights activist Miriam Makeba (1932-2008), folk singer Odetta (1930-2008), and the daughters of Barack and Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha, DBR used the birth dates of Makeba and Odetta to organize the musical materials. Harmonica used in the work represents the sounds of American sound and voice and the work speaks to a brief history of African – and African American – song and struggle. Five Chairs and One Table was premiered at Carnegie's Zankel Hall in March 2009.
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The Kompa Variations

Commissioned by Community MusicWorks and the Providence String Quartet, with support from the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, The Kompa Variations is a double quartet exploring the mentoring relationships between a professional string quartet and a student string quartet. DBR draws upon the theme-and-variations form in classical music and Haitian kompa music (its heavy, continuous downbeat and clear melodic and harmonic forms). The composer states that this octet was conceived "in the manner in which Haitian music is often taught: side-by-side, master and apprentice, the student playing less complex rhythms than the teacher, who often improvises a free and continuous set of variations around a given theme." The work premiered at Rhode Island’s RISD Auditorium in October 2008.
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Soundtrack for A Shared Dream

DBR was one of three diverse contemporary composer/musicians (along with Mark O’Connor and Don Byron) commissioned by The Egg Center for the Performing Arts to create new music to honor the beauty of the Hudson River Valley and celebrate its rich cultural history. Commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Hudson River Settlement, Soundtrack for A Shared Dream is written for DBR’s ensemble, DBR & THE MISSION, and features a film by Bill Morrisson. The film projections are compromised of both beautiful/scenic, and haunting/dark images shot from a helicopter over the historic river. The work premiered in April 2008 and toured in March 2009.

Numerical Music

Numerical Music was commissioned by the Library of Congress in 2006, and is written for solo piano and violin. Utilizing a unique numerical assignment of pitches, the piano and the violin follow a complex pattern of repeated notes and themes to create a beautifully balanced, tonal work. The work tangentially refers to John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham’s chance explorations. The piano part can be performed on a synthesizer or a laptop. The work premiered at the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium in February 2007.