The finale to NC State LIVE's 50^th anniversary season is a triumph of past meets future. We’re pairing the prolific violinist and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) with the Department of Performing Arts and Technology’s Raleigh Civic Symphony. DBR has been on our stage seven times — more than almost any other artist. He has created a new work for the Raleigh Civic Symphony, under the direction of conductor Peter Askim.

DBR’s new piece, Home, Migrations, and Our Imaginary Daughter, featuring a libretto by Haitian-American poet Kaitlyn Boyer, is a type of “community concerto,” highlighting local musicians — talented high school violinist Felicia Adizue alongside acclaimed cellist Shana Tucker and spoken word artist Bernadette Allen. The program also includes rising star cellist Tristen Johnson and United Strings of Color, a string quartet of Black high school artists dedicated to addressing racial disparity in classical music through music education and community engagement.

DBR’s new work will be performed alongside an evening of music by Black composers from across three centuries, including Margaret Bond’s monumental Montgomery Variations, a meditation on the Civil Rights Movement, and music from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Othello. The orchestra will also perform Roumain’s epic Voodoo Violin Concerto with the composer as soloist, almost 20 years to the day from when it first performed it with him under the direction of the late Randy Foy, the former director of Raleigh Civic Symphony.

Join us for this free, historic performance to celebrate five decades of NC State LIVE and lift up the voices of the future. Plus, the entire audience is invited to a post-show dance party.