A showcase of Montclair State University’s 2024-2025 year-long residency with composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), featuring cutting edge acoustic and electronic music by Roumain and Cali School of Music composers, with performances by the university’s flagship young artist ensembles Trillium String Quartet and Cali Collective.
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ABOUT DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a Black, Haitian-American composer who sees composing as collaboration with artists, organizations and communities within the farming and framing of ideas. He is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), Roumain has worked with artists from J’Nai Bridges, Lady Gaga and Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones, Marin Alsop and Anna Deavere Smith.
Known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic and African-American music influences, Roumain takes his genre-bending music beyond the proscenium. He is a composer of solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, and has composed an array of film, theater, and dance scores. He has composed music for the acclaimed film Ailey (Sundance official selection); was the first Music Director and Principal Composer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; released and appeared on 30 album recordings; and has published over 300 works. He has appeared on CBS, ESPN, FOX, NBC, NPR, and PBS; and has been presented and collaborated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Sydney Opera House. He was Artist-in-Residence and Creative Chair at the Flynn in Burlington, Vermont. Currently, he is the first Artistic Ambassador with Firstworks; the first Artist Activist-in-Residence at Longy School of Music; and the first Resident Artistic Catalyst with the New Jersey Symphony.
ABOUT CALI COMPOSERS
Cali Composers is Montclair State University’s creative music collective featuring student artists that span contemporary classical music, electronic sound art, media scoring, musical theater, and songwriting. Participating composers on tonight’s concert were collaborated with DBR as artist-in-residence in workshops, rehearsals, and masterclasses throughout the 2024-2025 season. Gian Torrano Jacobs is a harpist and multimedia artist working with electronics and constructed instruments, creating works rooted in ritual and natural cycles, commissioned and performed by artists such as International Contemporary Ensemble violinist Joshua Modney and Mantra Percussion.
ABOUT CALI COLLECTIVE ENSEMBLE
Cali Collective Ensemble is a mixed ensemble of Artist Diploma students at the Cali School of Music. In partnership with Music for All Seasons - an organization that believes in the power of music to heal, bring solace, and to change people’s lives - the Cali Collective Ensemble regularly gives interactive performances at community venues including retirement homes, shelters, halfway houses and detention centers. Additionally, the Cali Collective Ensemble performs alongside the guest artists of the Immersive Residency Program, including performances at Merkin Hall, and participates in workshops for professional development.
ABOUT TRILLIUM STRING QUARTET
Comprised of violinists Sommer Altier and Judith Kim, violist Sydney Link and cellist Amelia Smerz, the Trillium String Quartet formed in April 2024. Trillium is the Graduate Quartet in Residence at Montclair State University and members of the group hold performance degrees from renowned music schools including the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mannes School of Music, and McGill University. Trillium was named semi finalist at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition in the spring of 2025. As a quartet, Trillium has worked with both Calidore and Attacca Quartets, as well as received masterclasses and coaching from members of Emerson, Brentano, Lark, Catalyst, Daedalus, and Harlem Quartets. The Quartet has also had the privilege of performing in concert alongside artists such as the Attacca Quartet and Bela Fleck. In January of 2025, Trillium was one of four groups selected to participate in the Calidore String Quartet Seminar, where the quartet received coachings from Calidore members, performed in a masterclass with Paul Watkins, and were showcased in a final recital. TSQ has collaborated directly with living composers such as Daniel Bernard Roumain. Trillium has performed at halls and spaces in New York City including Merkin Hall, and Symphony Space. In the fall of 2025, Trillium will be the inaugural faculty at the Kinhaven Semester School Program in Vermont where they will give daily coachings and lessons to high school string players and quartets. TSQ is passionate about performing music in our communities, valuing education and outreach as a foundation for increasing access to the arts. Above all, TSQ seeks to form genuine connections with their music and their audiences. www.trilliumstringquartet.com