What is SRDMH?

 

The Société de recherche et de diffusion de la musique haïtienne (SRDMH) is a non-profit organization founded in Montreal in 1977 and registered with the Government of Quebec since March 1979.

 

Its mission is to promote classical music, composers, and performers of Haiti and the Caribbean.

 

SRDMH organizes classical music concerts (of composers and performers, of Haiti, the Caribbean, etc.) and manages a documentation centre that encompasses all categories of Haitian and West Indian music.

 

SRDMH mainly organizes for educational and cultural purposes concerts with authors and composers of Haiti and the Caribbean and others who were inspired by this cultural area. The society also programs universal classics when they are part of Haitian performer's repertoire or they contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of Haitian music. These concerts take place thanks to the participation of Haitian performers or other artists from another nationality, whenever their collaboration promotes the best dissemintation of works from the designated repertoire.

  

SRDMH also aims at developing a documentation centre that encompasses all categories of Haitian and West Indian music. Hosted by the Laboratoire de recherche sur les musiques du monde (LRMM) at Université de Montréal since October 2012, it is to this day the most diverse collection of scores, monographs and soundtracks.

 

This archival collection enables SRDMH to organize its concerts, to share this resource to researchers, and to support music education in Haiti. Thanks to this initiative, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (ed. 2001) recognizes the existence of Haitian classical music through an article dedicated to ‘‘Haiti: art music’’ (by Robert Grenier) in its famous classification.