Dameun Maurice Strange is a sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer whose conceptual chamber works, electronic works, and operas are focused on stories of the African diaspora, often exploring Afrofuturism themes. Strange is compelled to express through sound, music, and poetry the beauty and resilience of the Black experience, digging into a pantheon of ancestors to tell stories of a triumph while connecting the past, present, and future. While his sound experiments have many dimensions, he uses West African polyrhythms, synthesizers, and other electronic tools, contemporary jazz harmonic explorations, along with founding sounds and historic recordings to create modern afro-futurist performances that disrupt the notion of genre.

Strange was raised in Washington, D.C., and got his start with music at age five as a member of the DC Youth Orchestra program and an interest that continued to be cultivated at Metropolitan AME Church where he was a featured saxophone soloist throughout his high school years. Strange currently lives in Saint Paul, MN, where he has been a featured lecturer and panelist on art in the community, Afrofuturism, and art in the 21st Century at Macalester College, the University of MN, Penumbra, and other Twin Cities institutions. 

Strange is an award-winning composer, Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, and a featured composer with Alternative Motion Project for six years. The Cedar Cultural Center, International renowned artist Seitu Jones via the McKnight Foundation, Ananya Dance Theatre, is among his most recent commissioners. In 2017, Strange premiered his first full-length opera, Mother King, inspired by the life and death of Alberta Williams King with his upstart opera collective, OperaRising 52. He has also been a featured writing contributor with Pollen Midwest and Nourrir Magazine. Aside from his creative pursuits, Strange is an arts advocate with anti-racism as a foundation and a creative consultant to leaders and organizations in the for-profit, nonprofit and public sectors. Dameun was most recently the Director of Community and Belonging for the American Composers Forum.

Strange graduated from Macalester College with a Bachelor’s of Art in music, focusing on African drumming and composition and English (poetry writing). He has worked with such artists as J. Otis Powell, Ananya Chatterjea, Sage Francis, Sha Cage, Leslie Parker and has been a featured performer on concerts celebrating the work of Thurston Moore, George Lewis, and Henry Threadgill. Dameun is a 2018 recipient of the American Composers Forum Create Grant and the 2019 Jerome Hill Fellowship.