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Credit: Kevin Calixte, 2022, David Bontemps © - Image Credit Form

Genre: Classical, Jazz, Haitian

Period: 1990s-present

Region: Quebec

David Bontemps

The majority of his music training was done with the Haitian pianist-composer, Serge Villedrouin. He excelled in his craft and won a first place medal at the Inter-Caribbean Piano Competition in Guadeloupe in 1998, then in 2000 he gave his first recital in Port-au-Prince, which included him performing some of the classics such as Bach and Mozart and Haitian composers like Lamothe and Élie, as well as some of his own compositions. A few years later in 2002, he moved to Montreal, and was presented as the new hope of Haitian composers, by the musicologist and professor emeritus, Claude Dauphin. Dauphin even went on to rank him among the classical composers of the new era in his 2014 essay Histoire du style musical d’Haïti.
He continued his musical pursuits in Montreal, where in October 2007 he accompanied the mezzo-soprano Chantal Lavigne, for the creation and recording of the Offrands Voudouesque (Voodoo Offerings), a 24 song cycle by the Haitian composer Werner Jaëgerhuber. He continued by releasing two solo recordings. The first was in 2012, called Vibrations. This was dedicated to his piano compositions, for which he received a grant from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts. The second solo recording was in 2017, and was called Gede Nibo. This was a dedication to his variations on the famous theme of the Haitian composer Ludovic Lamothe (1882-1953).
He is also the founder and director of the Creole jazz quintet Makaya, as well as the primary composer and arranger of their songs. It was during the lockdown in Covid-19, where he was inspired to compose the opera La Flambeau. Based on the play his friend Faubert Bolivar wrote, it is influenced by Haitian lore and West African mythology and is a critique of misogyny, corruption, and the abuse of power. Despite moving away from his birthplace, he still finds great influence in it, which can be seen in all his work.
Awards
  • 2001 Bronze Medal at the upper level of the National Piano Competition in Port-au-Prince
  • 1998 1st Place at the Inter-Caribbean Piano Competition

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