JEAN BERNARD CERIN
baritone, SongFest alumni ‘10

As a SongFest alumnus, we have been following the career of baritone Jean Bernard Cerin for many years and are so pleased to offer his needed and important perspective on the legacy of art song in the 21st Century. His work in researching and performing the work of Haitian Creole song among so much other music is indicative of the thoughtful way he approaches everything he does. As an innovator, performer, and researcher, Jean Bernard’s work sits in a unique place in our field and we are continually grateful for his presence.

“Praised for his burnished tone and focused phrasing,” (Chestnut Hill Local) baritone Jean Bernard Cerin has charmed audiences throughout the United States, France, Austria, and his native Haiti. A gifted recitalist, he won the Gerard Souzay Prize for best performance of a French Mélodie at the Joy in Singing International Song Competition in 2018.  On the concert stage, Jean Bernard has appeared with leading early music ensembles throughout the United States including Cleveland’s Les Délices, American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society’s Gamut Bach Ensemble, Piffaro Renaissance Wind Ensemble, Louisville’s Bourbon Baroque, Night Music and the Philadelphia Bach Festival.  

Jean Bernard is a member of Kuwento Mizik, a classical crossover duo. He and pianist Veena Kulkarni-Rankin fuse classical and world music with storytelling into transformative concert experiences. With Indian-Filipino-American and Haitian backgrounds, Veena and Jean Bernard synthesize a broad cultural heritage with their western classical training to explore music from all around the globe. The duo won best performance of a Folk Song at the 2021 Canto Latino International Song Competition.  They have performed their stories and music at venues all over the country including the Detroit Institute of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This season, they are releasing their first album Lua Nova, a program of mostly original arrangements of folk and popular ballads from Brazil, Haiti, the Philippines, Iran, India, and the United States.

Dr. Cerin’s latest research has centered on early Haitian classical music. He recently produced a documentary entitled Lisette (2021) and launched theLisette Project, a digital humanities initiative that traces the sung history of the oldest Haitian Creole text, “Lisette quitté la plaine.” The website and film provide performers and scholars with historical and creative resources that unpack the text’s complex history. Of the text’s many versions, you will find on the Recordings page videos of five that were composed between roughly 1757 and 1942 in places ranging from colonial Saint-Domingue, to France, Louisiana, and modern Haiti.

 Jean Bernard completed his doctorate at the University of Michigan, holds a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory in Boston and a Bachelor of Arts from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He makes his home in southern Pennsylvania where he serves on faculty at the nation’s first degree granting Historically Black College/University, Lincoln University.