BIOGRAPHY

Often do I think of the words of the poet Robert Frost: ‘Two roads diverged in the woods and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.'

At the age of 46, in the middle of a career in international banking I switched to music composition and enrolled in the Western Michigan University Irving S. Gilmore School of Music. The first orchestral work, “Of Barbed Wire and Red Roses” Op. 1b for large brass ensemble and timpani was the result of reflections on the violence and destruction of civil wars that I had witnessed, years earlier while on business travel overseas. This work received the Irving S. Gilmore Emerging Artist Award. . *** Early on, other awards such as the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo Arts Outreach Grant and the Pharmacia and Upjohn Foundation Grant, gave me the additional boosts of self-confidence to pursue music composition instead of banking, to follow the road less traveled by, which, to quote the poet, ‘has made all the difference.’

The late pianist, Maurizio Pollini once said that “art is a little like the dreams of a society. They seem to contribute little, but sleeping and dreaming are vitally important in that a human couldn’t live without them, in the same way a society cannot live without art.” . *** One of my later compositions, the Concerto for alto saxophone and string orchestra, Springtime in Chicago, Op. 61 (2024) is a joyful work - the idea of a new beginning. More than a century ago, part of the family fortunately seized the opportunity of a new beginning when they resettled in Chicago, coming from central Europe. The saxophone that had been invented in the 1840s also migrated from Europe and, eventually, would influence jazz, the new music genre from the New World. The idea of capturing in a new concerto a whiff of the innate expression of optimism and freedom - and hope - radiating from the saxophone’s idiomatic sound color led me to compose the concerto Springtime in Chicago for my grandson.

Springtime in Chicago offers a vast contrast with the oratorio Requiem for the Fallen for soprano, choir and orchestra, about healing from war tragedies. The Oratorio was first played in 2018 in France for the centennial of the end of WWI; in 2019 at Carnegie Hall, New York; and twice in Moscow: in 2020 with the support of the U.S. Embassy to commemorate the cooperation of WWII, and in 2021 as a concert for peace. . ***

Dubois holds a degree in Chemistry (MS) from the University of Brussels and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After military service, he worked for a European oil company and then a decade in the Middle East and Africa division of an American commercial bank, based alternately in New York City and in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Subsequently, Dubois taught international business, economics and finance in Michigan. In the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, he joined the US Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. and was assigned to the oversight of USAID activities in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and former Yugoslavia.

This international exposure led Dubois to reflect on the humanity that binds us regardless of background and status. He decided to ‘start over’ and enrolled in the Western Michigan University School of Music to study composition. The objective was to compose works such as the oratorio ‘Requiem for the Fallen’ that encourage non-violence through reflection and dialogue. . *** A month after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and still in the context of search for peace, the ‘Ave Maria’ op. 29 and the ‘Organ Sonata’ op. 16 were played in Austria during another concert for peace supported by the American Embassy in Vienna. In March 2023, the American Embassy in Moscow cosponsored a concert for peace at the Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the ‘Ave Maria’ op. 29 and the ‘Organ Sonata’ op. 16 opened the event.

Two decades earlier, in 2002, the ‘Organ Sonata’ op. 16, premiered at the First United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in memory of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania and northern Virginia. The organ sonata was replayed in 2004 at the cathedral of Lectoure, France.   *** The other vocal works include the Pastoral Cantata ‘The Voices of Hope’ op. 57 (2023) and the shorter version ‘Tears of the Earth’ op. 62 (2024); several song cycles, such as ‘Detours of Love’ op. 21; or the melody in trio ‘Come Ye Who Love’ op. 43 for soprano, horn and piano, commissioned by Michigan State University. The review of ‘Come Ye Who Love’ in “The Horn Call” reads: “Emmanuel Dubois’ contribution is a hauntingly beautiful work with surprises. The moody opening solo is an extended cantabile, which is then joined by the voice in an interweaving tapestry. […]”

*** The wartime poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’, was written in 1915 on the battlefield. Many decades later, as a teenager, Dubois biked through the Flanders Fields of poppies and crosses, visited the World War I Memorial at the Menen Gate in Ypres, Belgium, and the war cemeteries in Flanders. Years later, in the Ardennes, he visited the sites of the Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944 - January 25, 1945), when the American war effort, enormously costly in lives, turned around the outcome of WWII. He also walked the beaches of Belgium and France (‘Omaha Beach’ and ‘Utah Beach’) to reflect on the loss of American and Allied forces during the victorious June 6, 1944 Normandy Landing. On D-Day alone, close to 5,000 Allied troops perished for Freedom on the beaches of Normandy as they succeeded in establishing a beachhead. Against the background of these losses of lives, the composer expressed his reflections on the tragedy of wars in 'Requiem for the Fallen’.

Dubois’ music has been played at numerous events and festivals in America and in Europe, including the Nuits Musicales en Armagnac Summer Festival; the Jeunes Talents Concert Series (Auditorium Colbert, Paris) under the auspices of the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art; the Kauffman Center (Merkin Hall), New York; Carnegie Hall (Weil Hall, Zankel Hall), New York; the Université de Liège; the Stephaniensaal, Graz; Fleurance, France; Mosfilm Studios, a Moscow art gallery, the Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.