Lawrence.com Podcasts: Punditocracy

Daniel Bernard Roumain (or just DBR) is a classically trained musician whose style veers just as easily from hip-hop to Handel, a collision of influences he refers to as "dred violin." Born of Haitian immigrants and based out of Harlem, DBR has collaborated with artists as diverse as Phillip Glass and DJ Spooky. He's currently on tour with his nine piece orchestra, The Mission-which includes an amplified string quartet, drum-kit, keyboards, DJ and laptop-to perform "The Civil Rights Reader," a collection of compositions serving as musical portraits of leaders from the civil rights era. DBR and The Mission will bring "The Civil Rights Reader" to the Lied Center on February 2nd, and he was kind enough to sit down with us (via cellphone) for a chat.