Although Haiti’s extensive music composition tradition has been around since at least the late 19th century, few people outside of a small group of dedicated scholars know about its many composers, such as Gifrants, Werner Jaegerhuber, Sabrina Jean Louis, Michel Monton, Jean “Rudy” Perrault, and Julio Racine. Just as Haitian culture shares West African and French influences, each of these composers have in various ways used European instruments, harmonies, and styles to showcase West African, Haitian folkloric, and Haitian Vodou songs, rhythms, melodies, and dances.
Our work in Haitian classical music has drawn on the research, documentation, and scholarship of the Société de Recherche et de Diffusion de la Musique Haïtienne and South Carolina State University Prof. Robert Grenier.
Next: Gifrants
Haitian Music for Change
Crossing Borders Music shares music in response to Haiti’s humanitarian crisis, including a performance of Incertitudes! and Haiti’s Lecture by Haitian composer Dickens Princivil, commissioned in 2023 by Crossing Borders Music following the composer’s kidnapping.
The program also includes Rudy Perrault’s “Exodus” string quartet which tells through music the story of Haitians forced to leave their homeland, “Strings for Change” by Gifrants which was written in response to US political insecurity and violence, “Chrysallis devient papillon,” (“Chrysalis Becomes Butterfly”) a metaphor for positive transformation by Sabrina CD Jean Louis, plus hopeful music showing the incredible talents of Haiti’s next generation of musicians, and more.