David Bontemps

Composer David Bontemps remains musically rooted in his native Haiti, taking up such themes as voodoo. His recorded output ranges from opera to jazz. In 2005, Bontemps accompanied mezzo-soprano Chantal Lavigne in a performance of the Offrandes Vodouesques, a set of 24 songs by composer Werner Jaegerhuber; the pair released a recording of those songs in 2007, marking Bontemps' recording debut. His solo debut came in 2012 with Vibrations, a collection of his own piano works. Bontemps founded the quintet Makaya in 2006 and has written and arranged most of its material. His most ambitious project has been the one-act opera La Flambeau, based on a play by writer Faubert Bolivar. The opera was performed on a 2023 recording by the Orchestre Classique de Montréal.