Visions of dreams

Soulful, charismatic, technically brilliant, a star. This is how Dean Bowman is described. The singer from New York is currently living in Resita. He founded the association “Visions of dreams” here, and created Garana Fusion Festival. I had a chance to talk with Dean and to get to know what these two things are about!

What asociation ”visions of dreams” is about?

We formed Asociatia Multiculturala “Visions of Dreams” as a non-profit organization to improve the lives of children and students by increasing their awareness and exposure to Black American music, culture, and the arts. We seek to mentor school-age children and students teaching, organizing events, and performing concerts of Black American music in many forms including gospel, traditional Black spirituals, soul, rock, reggae, jazz, and blues.

As I saw on your website that you are organising Garana Fusion Festival. How did this idea came up, to organise it? Does it have special theme/ is it for people who likes specific style of music? Will the festival take place this year?

I started the festival in 2017 and the first Fusion & Gospel Festival took place on August 4-6, 2017, in Garana. My partener Mihaela proposed at first that it be a single day event featuring only me, and as we discussed it, we agreed to incorporate some of the various band projects and ensembles I have worked with from Serbia and Romania. We agreed the theme “fusion” because my experience transcends different styles including jazz, fusion, gospel, rock, soul, and classical music. The first festival included all these variations in the forms of different bands from Romania, Serbia, and the USA . We were forced to take a break over the last years because of the current restrictions, and we are hopeful that we can re-start the festival in 2022.

You have music school too, with different classes. Can anyone enroll? How can people do it?

The school is open to anyone of school age who is interested in singing, playing music, and developing their skills in the creating, performing, and teaching music, specifically Black American music. We teach jazz, rock, reggae, soul, blues, gospel, classical, and traditional Black spirituals. We are completely volunteer although we accept charitable donations and in-kind contributions in order to pay the taxes, logistics, and associated travel costs. The only enrollment process is attendance.

What other things your association is organising?

We are organizing community events, teaching about the history of jazz music as an art form, evolving in the USA through Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellinton, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker. Also we are organizing live streams of workshops on specific musical instruments and on the business of music as intellectual property.

If you have a passion for music, join „Visions of dreams“!

You can find more information here: https://visions-of-dreams.ro/

Autor: Emilija Lideiktytė

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