Click on a member of DBR & THE MISSION above for bio.

DBR & THE MISSION is (clockwise starting at upper left): Elan Vytal, aka DJ Scientific (turntables, beatbox), Jon Weber (viola), Kenny Grohowski (drums), Jim Robetson (bass), Jessie Reagen (cello), Earl Maneein (electric violin), Wynne Bennett (music director, keyboards, groovebox), Daniel Bernard Roumain (electric violin, acoustic violin, piano, vocals, laptop), and Matthew Szemela (electric violin).

From a sold out performance with Philip Glass at Arizona’s Gammage Auditorium, to the alternative and experimental monthly show at New York City’s downtown Bowery Poetry Club, DBR & THE MISSION presents lively, genre-jumping contemporary music that is captivating audiences nationwide. Founded in 2003 by composer/performer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), DBR & THE MISSION is comprised of nine young, multi-cultural musicians from diverse musical backgrounds including an amplified string quartet, drum kit, keyboard, a vocalist, DJ and laptops. Each member is well-versed in modern classical, jazz, rock, and hip-hop performance practices and has the profound ability to perform DBR’s wide ranges of pieces. DBR’s Hip-Hop Studies and Études were highlighted at the group’s sold out performance at Joe’s Pub receiving critical acclaim---“true to form, these vary greatly in style, from slow, introspective Neo-Classical ruminations to rhythmically complicated, riffy pieces that would not be out of place in a dance club.” (New York Times)

DBR & THE MISSION recently received a stunning welcome to Los Angeles at the Cerritos Center playing works “from a woe-inflicted interpretation of ‘Amazing Grace’ to turntable-like scratching and deafening electric Jimi Hendrix riffs” (LA Times). DBR & THE MISSION’s multi-disciplinary performances (with Yuki Nakajima often providing a live video mix) have been applauded at New York’s Joe’s Pub and Cutting Room, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Miami’s Caleb Auditorium, Pace University’s Schimmel Center, Brooklyn’s 651 Arts, Arizona State University’s Gammage Auditorium, Williams College and Montclair State University’s Kasser Theater.