Recent Orchestral Commissions

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

Dancers, Dreamers, and Presidents (Premiering in Fall 2010) *new

The Sphinx Commissioning Consortium, comprised of Sphinx and 9 partnering orchestras nationwide, has selected DBR for the 2009-2010 commission. Currently, works by Black and Latino composers account for less than 1% of the classical music performed by American orchestras each year. Sphinx has established partnerships with major orchestras to build the repertoire of works by Black and Latino composers with the addition of contemporary compositions. Dancers, Dreamers, and Presidents will be scored for full orchestra and will premiere during the 2010-2011 season with performance by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, NJ Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony and Sphinx Orchestra.

WE MARCH! A Concerto for Guitar and String Orchestra

WE MARCH! is a guitar concerto commissioned by Eliot Fisk, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Newman Center at the University of Denver. The work is comprised of three linked movements titled I March, Matthew’s March (in honor of Fisk’s late brother) and We March, and is a response to the political mood in the U.S. in 2007, the year in which the work was written. DBR states "I find Americans engaged in a raging debate between conservatives and progressives, and I feel at times caught in the middle of a conflict with little hope towards resolution. I chose to compose three marches, each one concerned with subjecting the guitarist (in the role as the individual) against the ensemble (acting as a collective voice, or at times, a menacing army). The music recalls the sounds one might hear at a rave dance show or a concert by Trent Reznor of NINE INCH NAILS." WE MARCH! premiered at the Newman Center in March 2007.

The Tuscaloosa Meditations

Inspired by Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, The Tuscaloosa Meditations is scored for one solo (offstage) trumpet, two flutes and string orchestra. Commissioned by the University of Alabama and commemorates the "stand in the school house door" incident between the (former) segregationist Governor George Wallace, and Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood, the first African-American students to attend school there. It was premiered at the historic Moody Auditorium at University of Alabama in April 2007.

Call Them All: Fantasy Projections for Film, Laptop, and Orchestra

In the American Composers Orchestra-commissioned laptop concerto, Call Them All, DBR joins forces with the turntablist-laptopist Elan Vytal aka DJ Scientific to combine "old school" sounds of New York's club scene and soul music with an orchestral texture, all enhanced by a video created by Janet Wong featuring famed choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones as narrator. In 2000, American Composers Orchestra provided DBR with his first orchestra commission and Carnegie Hall debut with the premiere of Harlem Essay. Call Them All, ACO’s second commission for DBR, premiered at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in March 2006.

Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1

A 25-minute concerto for orchestra and violin, this work is an expression of DBR's roots in Haiti and features a drum kit and hip-hop/jazz beats throughout. Loud, extroverted, and fiercely funky, the concerto allows the solo violinist to show all of the many extended techniques and possibilities for the instrument. The work was originally commissioned by The Kitchen House Blend in 2002 for a chamber ensemble, but DBR was asked by the Vermont Youth Orchestra to arrange the work for full orchestra in 2006. The work is currently on tour, featuring DBR as the solo violinist.
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