SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER, 2021
VOLUME TEN NUMBER TWO
MARVIN GAYE
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
JUNIUS PAUL
(July 10-16)
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS
(July 17-23)
MAZZ SWIFT
(July 24-30)
WARREN WOLF
(July 31-August 6)
VICTOR GOULD
(August 7-13)
SEAN JONES
(August 14-20)
JESSIE MONTGOMERY
(August 21-27
CHANDA DANCY
(August 28-September 3)
KAMASI WASHINGTON
(September 4-10)
FLORENCE PRICE
(September 11-17)
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN
(September 18-24)
ALFA MIST
(September 25-October 1)
https://www.jessiemontgomery.com/biography
Photo by Jiyang Chen
Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).
Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.
Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. She was a two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition and was awarded a generous MPower grant to assist in the development of her debut album, Strum: Music for Strings (Azica Records). She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization.
Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Five Slave Songs (2018) commissioned for soprano Julia Bullock by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Records from a Vanishing City (2016) for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – written to mark the
200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner – for The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation.
In the 2019-20 season, new commissioned works will be premiered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the National Choral Society, and ASCAP Foundation. Jessie is also teaming up with composer-violinist Jannina Norpoth to reimagine Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha; it is being produced by Volcano Theatre and co-commissioned by Washington Performing Arts, Stanford University, Southbank Centre (London), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Additionally, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony will all perform Montgomery’s works this season.
The New York Philharmonic has selected Jessie as one of the featured composers for their Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting equal voting rights in the United States to women. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley and to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Thomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and The Sphinx Organization; and a new orchestral work for the National Symphony.
Jessie began her violin studies, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and currently a member of the Catalyst Quartet, she continues to maintain an active performance career as a violinist appearing regularly with her own ensembles, as well as with the Silkroad Ensemble and Sphinx Virtuosi.
Jessie’s teachers and mentors include Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, Alice Kanack, Joan Tower, Derek Bermel, Mark Suozzo, Ira Newborn, and Laura Kaminsky. She holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a Graduate Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton University.
“Music is my connection to the world. It guides me to understand my place in relation to others and challenges me to make clear the things I do not understand. I imagine that music is a meeting place at which all people can converse about their unique differences and common stories.”— Jessie
https://www.jessiemontgomery.com/works
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WORKS
SOLO
Rhapsody No. 1 (2014)
Written for Jessie Montgomery’s debut album, Strum: Music for Strings
Instrumentation: solo violin
Premiere: June 2014, Jessie Montgomery, violin, Cornelia Street Cafe, NYC
Duration - 7 minutes
Rhapsody No. 2 (2020)
Written for Michi Wiancko on the album Planetary Candidate
Instrumentation: solo violin
Premiere: September 2020, Michi Wiancko, violin
Duration - 5 minutes
Rhapsody No. 1 (2021)
Instrumentation: solo viola
Transcription by the composer from the violin version
Duration - 7 minutes
Rhapsody No. 2 (2021)
Instrumentation: solo viola
Transcription by the composer from the violin version
Duration - 5 minutes
Cadenzas for Haydn Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major (2014)
Instrumentation: solo cello
Premiere: April 2014, Christine Lamprea with the Delphi Chamber Orchestra, New Haven, CT
Duration - Movement I: 3 minutes; Movement II: 1 minute
Cadenza: A Modern Collaboration for Haydn's D Major Cello Concerto
June 4, 2014
Christine Lamprea
HAYDN D MAJOR CELLO CONCERTO NEW CADENZAS BY JESSIE MONTGOMERY WRITTEN FOR CELLIST CHRISTINE LAMPREA AVAILABLE FOR PERFORMANCE IN THE '14-'15 SEASON AND BEYOND
Commissioned by Bunny Mathews. Ms. Lamprea recently commissioned Sphinx Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery to write cadenzas for the Haydn Cello Concerto in D Major. Performances in 2014 include the Delphi Chamber Orchestra, Hilton Head Symphony, and a 5-city tour in the United States and Canada with the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio. Christine writes "When I first heard Jessie's music on the Sphinx Virtuosi Fall 2013 tour, I was curious to learn more about her take on composition as an active performer in addition to composer. Her new cadenzas are fresh, avant-garde, yet informed and related to the rest of the concerto. I've learned more about the concerto after collaborating and discussing what she took from the piece, and I am so lucky to work with such an exciting, compelling new voice to add a new experience to the Haydn D Major Cello Concerto."
CHAMBER MUSIC
Starburst (2012, arranged for chamber ensemble 2020 by Jannina Norpoth)
Commissioned by: the Sphinx Organization
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, piano, 2 violins, viola, violoncello
Duration - 3 minutes
Strum (2006; revised 2012)
Commissioned by: Community MusicWorks; revision by the Sphinx Organization
Instrumentation: string quartet or string quintet (also available for string orchestra)
Premiere: April 2006; revision in February 2012, The Providence String Quartet; The Catalyst Quartet; Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI
Duration - 7 Minutes
Voodoo Dolls (2008)
Commissioned by: JUMP! Dance Company of Rhode Island
Instrumentation: string quartet
Premiere: June 2008, The Providence String Quartet, The Carriage House, Providence, RI
Duration - 5 minutes
Break Away (2013)
Commissioned by: PUBLIQuartet for the Music of Now Marathon
Instrumentation: string quartet
Premiere: February 2013, PUBLIQuartet, Symphony Space, NYC
Duration - 12 minutes
Source Code (2013)
Commissioned by: the Isaiah Fund for New Initiatives in partnership with Symphony Space
Instrumentation: string quartet (also available for string orchestra)
Premiere: November 2013, The Cassatt Quartet, Symphony Space, New York, NY
Duration - 8 Minutes
In Color (2014) Program Notes
Commissioned by Bob Stewart
Instrumentation: tuba and string quartet
Premiere: September 2014, PUBLIQuartet and Bob Stewart, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, New York, NY
Duration - 11 minutes
Duo for Violin and Cello (2015) Performance
Instrumentation: violin and cello
Duration - 11 minutes
Performed by: Ensemble Pi members; Airi Yoshioka, violin Alexis Gerlach, cello
D Major Jam! (2016)
Instrumentation: student string quartet and string accompaniment
Duration - 3 minutes
Derived from work with the Catalyst Quartet and students in the Seattle Music Partners program
Lunar Songs (2019)
Instrumentation: voice and string quintet
Text: J. Mae Barizo
Duration - 7 minutes
Commissioned by ASCAP for the Leonard Bernstein Centennial
Peace (2020) Performance
Instrumentation: violin and piano or clarinet and piano
Duration - 4 minutes
Commissioned by Victoria Robey OBE for Elena Urioste and Tom Poster, premiered as part of #UriPosteJukeBox
VOCAL
I Want To Go Home, African American Spiritual (2015)
Instrumentation: soprano and string orchestra (or string quintet)
Premiere: December 29, 2015; Julia Bullock and Loisaida Collaborative, Trinity Wall Street 12th Night Festival, New York, NY
Duration - 4 minutes
Danse Africaine (2016)
Commissioned by: Young People's Chorus of New York, Transient Glory Series
Instrumentation: youth chorus, SSAA
Premiere: November 4, 2016, Young People's Chorus of New York; National Sawdust, NYC
Premiere: May 2015, Community MusicWorks Players, Southside Cultural Center, Providence, RI
Loisaida, I love you (2016)
Commissioned by: 5 Borough Music Festival: 5 Borough Songbook, Volume II
Instrumentation: mezzo soprano and cello
Premiere: February 11, 2017, Jennifer Johnson-Cano, mezzo; Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello; The DiMenna Center, New York, NY
Duration - 5 minutes
ORCHESTRA
Starburst (2012) Rental
Commissioned by: the Sphinx Organization
Instrumentation: string orchestra
Premiere: September 2012, The Sphinx Virtuosi, New World Center, Miami, FL
Duration - 3 minutes
Minimum string count required: 3/3/3/2/1
Strum (2006; revised 2012) Rental
Commissioned by: Community MusicWorks; revision by the Sphinx Organization
Instrumentation: string orchestra
Premiere: April 2006; revision in February 2012, The Providence String Quartet; The Catalyst Quartet; Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI
Duration - 7 Minutes
Minimum string players required: 3/3/3/2/1
Source Code (2013) Rental
Commissioned by: the Isaiah Fund for New Initiatives in partnership with Symphony Space
Instrumentation: string orchestra
Premiere: November 2013, The Cassatt Quartet, Symphony Space, New York, NY
Duration - 8 Minutes
Minimum string players required: 3/3/3/2/1
Banner for chamber orchestra or string orchestra (2014) Rental
Commissioned by: the Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation
Instrumentation: solo string quartet and string orchestra or solo string quartet with chamber orchestra (2d1.1.1.1.--1.1.0.0.--timp.perc.--strings)
Premiere: September, 2014, New World Center, Miami, FL
Duration - 8 Minutes
Minimum string players required (chamber orchestra version): 2/2/2/2/2, plus string quartet
Minimum string players required (string orchestra version): 3/3/3/2/2, plus string quartet
Soul Force (2015) Rental
Commissioned by: The Dream Unfinished, a benefit for civil rights
Instrumentation: 2222--4331--timp--2 perc--strings
Premiere: July 2015, James Blachly, conductor, Centennial Memorial Temple, New York, NY
8 minutes
Caught by the Wind (2016) Rental
Commissioned by: The Albany Symphony, American Music Festival
Instrumentation: 2232--4331--2 perc--strings
Premiere: July 2015, James Blachly, conductor, Centennial Memorial Temple, New York, NY
Duration - 10 minutes
Records from a Vanishing City (2016) Rental
Commissioned by: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation: 112(bcl)2--2200--timp--strings
Premiere: October 27, 2016, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium, New York, NY
Duration - 14 minutes
Minimum string players required: 3/3/3/2/1
Coincident Dances (2017) Rental
Commissioned by: Chicago Sinfonietta
Instrumentation: 2(picc)22(bcl)2--2231--timp--3 perc--strings
Premiere: September 16, 2017, Chicago Sinfonietta, Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville, IL
Duration - 12 minutes
Shift, Change, Turn (2019) Rental
Commissioned by: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation: 1(picc)11(eb)1--1100--timp--strings
Premiere: September 26, 2019, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
Duration - 12 minutes
Five Freedom Songs (2021) Rental
Co-Commissioned by: Sun Valley Music Festival, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra; Andris Nelsons, Music Director, Grand Teton Music Festival, Kansas City Symphony, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Arts Festival
Instrumentation: voice, percussion (1 player), strings
Premiere: August 7, 2021, Sun Valley Music Festival, Ketchum, ID
Duration - 20 minutes
FILM MUSIC
Sketch (composer)
Lou Hamou-Lhdaj; short animation; NYU Tisch
Instrumentation: chamber orchestra
Homecoming (composer)
Josiah Signor and Gritty Committee; short film; NYU Tisch
Instrumentation: acoustic guitar and string orchestra
Bubble Tree (composer)
Ran Jing; short animation; NYU Tisch
Strings (2014) (music supervisor)
Taner Jarman and Jarman Entertainment
https://www.jessiemontgomery.com/events
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, August 21, 2021 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Eden Park's Seasongood Pavillion (map)
Starburst
Fierce female performers and composers will be at the forefront at Women in Musik. Marking just over 100 years since the 19th Amendment gave women a voice at the ballot box, CCO will look at the voice women have in classical repertoire.
https://www.ccocincinnati.org/events-main/women-in-musik/
Nashville Symphony
Thursday, September 16, 2021 – Saturday, September 18, 2021 7:00pm
Schermerhorn Symphony Center (map)
Strum
Opening Weekend: Fanfare for the Music City
https://www.nashvillesymphony.org/tickets/concert/2021-2022-season/classical-1-opening-weekend-fanfare-for-music-city/
Minnesota Orchestra
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Friday, September 24, 2021
7:30pm
Orchestra Hall (map)
Banner
Season Opening: Osmo Vänskä and Joshua Bell
https://minnesotaorchestra.org/tickets/calendar/eventdetail/1826/-/season-opening-osmo-vaenskae-and-joshua-bell
St. Louis Symphony
Saturday, September 25, 2021 –
Sunday, September 26, 2021 8:00pm
Powell Hall (map)
Banner
Music Director Stéphane Denève heralds a season of resilience and spirit. Jessie Montgomery’s Banner both celebrates and interrogates America’s national anthem. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky fights demons to triumph in his Fourth Symphony. In DANCE, composer Anna Clyne, cellist Inbal Segev, and choreographer Kirven Douthit-Boyd echo the words of the poet Rumi: “Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.”
https://shop.slso.org/6970/6981
Sphinx Virtuosi @ Carnegie Hall
Friday, October 15, 2021 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage (map)
Banner
The Sphinx Virtuosi present the sounds of our rich history, our conflict, and our celebration in Tracing Visions. The program sets out to challenge and evolve the traditional classical canon by illuminating a new pathway for listening, sharing, and artistic expression. The ensemble tells a more complete story of America with Xavier Foley’s vision of the Black National Anthem; Jesse Montgomery’s Banner, a work that unleashes this country’s many vibrant voices; and Andrea Casarrubios’s Seven,a tribute to heroes who fought to save lives during the pandemic.
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2021/10/15/Sphinx-Virtuosi-0700PM
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Thursday, October 21, 2021 – Sunday, October 24, 2021 8:00pm
Walt Disney Concert Hall (map)
Strum
Mahler, Montgomery, and Mackey with Dudamel: Gustavo leads Mahler’s heavenly Fourth Symphony and the world premiere of Steven Mackey’s trumpet concerto.
Performances on Oct 21, 22, 23, and 24.
https://www.laphil.com/events/performances/1329/2021-10-21/mahler-montgomery-and-mackey-with-dudamel
Orlando Philharmonic
Saturday, October 23, 2021 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Calvary Orlando (map)
Viola Concerto (co-commissioned with the Grant Park Music Festival) (world premiere)
Masumi Per Rostad, viola
Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Dvořák urged fellow-composers to seek inspiration in their own cultures, as he did in his beloved Ninth, drawing on African- and Native American melodies he heard during his American sojourn (yet never forgetting the rhythms and colors of his native Bohemia). You’ll also hear exciting contemporary voices: African American composers James Lee III’s Amer’ican and Jessie Montgomery’s Viola Concerto, composed for Grammy Award-winner Masumi Per Rostad.
https://orlandophil.org/event/dvoraks-postcard-from-the-new-world/
Chicago Symphony: MusicNOW
Monday, November 1, 2021 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Orchestra Hall (map)
Loisaida, My Love / Lunar Songs
The 2021/22 CSO MusicNOW series opens at Orchestra Hall with a program curated by Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery that celebrates composers with ties to Chicago. Featured are a work by daring, cutting-edge composer Ted Hearne and a world premiere by rising star Elijah Daniel Smith that reimagines the Baroque concerto grosso form. Haitian American flutist-composer Nathalie Joachim explores individual and cultural identity in her wind quintet Seen alongside Montgomery's set of enchanting vocal works based on texts by J. Mae Barizo and Bimbo Rivas.
https://order.cso.org/11503/11504
The Knights
Saturday, December 11, 2021 8:00pm – 10:00pm
92nd Street Y (map)
Records from a Vanishing City
The dynamic young Brooklyn-based orchestral collective The Knights is reimagining classical music programming and performance and leaving audiences ecstatic along the way. The ensemble’s expansive artistic vision has earned them critical acclaim, a Grammy nomination, concert tours alongside artists including Yo-Yo Ma, and more.
https://www.92y.org/event/the-knights-play-schubert
https://www.omahasymphony.org/composers-jessie-montgomery
Composers You Should Know: Jessie Montgomery
Violinist, composer, and educator Jessie Montgomery is one of the most notable voices in today’s classical music scene – not even 40 years old, she has made a name for herself nationally with lively and poignant writing for strings that is as colorful as it is cutting. The Omaha Symphony will perform Montgomery’s work, Starburst – the piece’s Omaha premiere – this Saturday, October 3. She’s a composer we think you should know.
Born in Manhattan to a musician father and a theater-artist mother, Montgomery grew up during a time of booming artistic change and growth. Her creativity and sense of place as an American were formed in the 1980’s Lower East Side arts scene. She began composing in high school but found herself pursuing the art more seriously in the late aughts. She attended NYU to pursue a graduate degree in composition for film and multimedia, and produced her breakout work, Strum, in 2008.
The Washington Post describes Montgomery’s music as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” – her music weaves classical elements with folk music, spirituals, improvisation, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, and elements of poetry, making her work a unique experience for performers and audiences alike.
“I really like the idea of adding elements of improvisation and some chance and making the performers, sort of, engage, differently within the piece,” Montgomery said in a 2016 interview with New Music USA. “There’s such a rigidity, and – having played so much standard repertoire [for string quartet] – there’s this expectation that things should be executed a certain way. There’s a real beauty in trying to find your sound and your voice and the way you would interpret a piece of music with all these expectations on it. But I like to throw this other element in that says… ‘screw all that…’”
Montgomery has been active with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young Black and Latinx string players, since 1999. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. A talented violinist herself, Montgomery is an active performer with the Catalyst Quartet while producing regular commissions for the likes of the Albany Symphony, Joyce Foundation, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and other prominent American ensembles. Highlights of her growing body of work include Five Slave Songs (2018) commissioned for soprano Julia Bullock, Records for a Vanishing City (2016), Caught by the Wind (2016), and Banner (2014).
In her work, Montgomery grapples with questions of place, patriotism, history, and belonging – what does it mean to be a Black woman in America? Her music nods to an awareness of itself, seeming to ask the question, "what does art-making look like at this intersection of time, place, and identity?" For Montgomery, she recognizes that her position as a highly regarded artist was hard-won, made possible in part by those who came before her – namely, her parents.
“My privilege [to be able to compose and make art] comes from my parents having fought through the civil rights movement,” Montgomery continued in her interview with New Music USA. “[M]y mom was very active, actually, and she was in many of the protests, and my dad, just being a rogue artist, that’s an act of protest in itself – but it’s just this idea that I came from that period, the political changes that happened during that time, so that’s what it means to me, to be an American.”
Montgomery, Holst, and Tchaikovsky
4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3
JESSIE MONTGOMERY: Starburst for String Orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade in C Major for String Orchestra, op. 48
GEORGE WALKER: Lyric for Strings
HOLST: St. Paul's Suite, op. 29 no. 2
https://www.millertheatre.com/explore/bios/jessie-montgomery
Jessie Montgomery
violin
Jessie Montgomery is a violinist, composer, and music educator from New York City. She performs and gives workshops in the United States and abroad and her compositions are being performed by orchestras and chamber groups throughout the U.S.
Montgomery began her violin studies at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. In 2003, she received her Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School in Violin Performance and completed her graduate degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University in 2012.
Montgomery began her career as a professional chamber musician as a member of the Providence String Quartet. She continued her chamber music endeavors as a founding member of PUBLIQuartet, a string quartet made up of composers and arrangers, featuring their own music as well as that of emerging and established contemporary composers. Since 2012, she has been a member of the highly acclaimed Catalyst Quartet, raved by The New York Times as “invariably energetic and finely burnished…performing with earthly vigor,” touring regularly in the United States and abroad. Most recently, she began collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble and has been touring with them in the 2018-19 season.
Since 1999, Montgomery has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports the accomplishments of young African-American and Latino string players. As a member of the Sphinx network she has played numerous roles within the organization, as a teacher, juror, orchestra member and concertmaster, panelist and ambassador, as well as being a two-time laureate in their annual competition. Montgomery was also Composer-in-Residence with the Sphinx Virtuosi, a conductor-less string orchestra which toured her music for three seasons. In 2014, she was awarded Sphinx’s generous MPower grant for the recording of her acclaimed debut album, Strum: Music for Strings (October 2015, Azica Records).
In fall 2018, Montgomery became a Virginia B.Toulmin Fellow at The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA), where she has been working on a new ballet for Dance Theater of Harlem and the Virginia Arts Festival, in collaboration with choreographer Claudia Schreier. Other upcoming highlights include premieres of new work for soprano Julia Bullock and The Muir Quartet, and performances by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
jessiemontgomery.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Montgomery
Jessie Montgomery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jessie Montgomery (born December 8, 1981) is an American composer, chamber musician, and music educator. Her compositions focus on the vernacular, improvisation, language, and social justice.
Early life and education
Jessie Montgomery was raised in Manhattan's Lower East Side by parents working in music and theater and involved in neighborhood arts. She began her violin studies at the Third Street Music School Settlement. She holds a bachelor's degree in violin performance from the Juilliard School, and completed a master's degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University in 2012.[1]
Starting in 1999, Montgomery became involved with the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based nonprofit that supports young African American and Latino string players. After receiving multiple Sphinx awards and grants as a young performer and composer, she now serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the organization's professional touring ensemble.[2][3]
Career
Montgomery devoted her early career to performance and to teaching at organizations such as Community MusicWorks in Providence, Rhode Island.[4]She co-founded the string ensemble PUBLIQuartet in 2010, and also performs with the Catalyst Quartet.[1] She has increasingly focused on composing solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Montgomery has completed commissions for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,[5] the Albany Symphony, the Sphinx Organization,[6] the Joyce Foundation, the National Choral Society, and the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, and the Sorel Organization. Her music has been performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony, and choreographed by the Dance Theatre of Harlem.[7]
In 2014, New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini highlighted her piece Banner for solo string quartet and string ensemble, commissioned by the Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation as a response to the 200th anniversary of "The Star-Spangled Banner," for "daringly transform[ing] the anthem, folding it into a teeming score that draws upon American folk and protest songs, and anthems from around the world, including Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban, to create a musical melting pot."[8] In 2019, Fanfare also discussed her multicultural New York influences, noting that listeners could expect to hear "English consort, samba, mbira, Zimbabwean dance, swing, techno... occasionally veering, somewhat ecstatically, towards a modern jazz jam session" in her work.[9]
In 2016, Montgomery was elected to the board of Chamber Music America.[10]
Discography
Strum: Music for Strings (2015), Azica 71302[11]
Publications
Break Away (2013), for string quartet[12]
Source Code (2018), for string quartet[13]
Starburst (2012), for string orchestra[14]
Strum (2018), for string orchestra[15]
Tower City (2018), for solo carillon[16]
Rhapsody no. 1 (2015), for solo violin[17]
Voodoo Dolls (2012), for string quartet[18]
External links
Official website
https://chicagoclassicalreview.com/2021/04/cso-names-jesse-montgomery-composer-in-residence/
CSO names Jessie Montgomery composer in residence
by Lawrence A. Johnson
April 20, 2021
Chicago Classical Review 
Jessie Montgomery will be the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’snext composer-in-residence. Photo: Jiyang Chen
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced Tuesday that Jessie Montgomery will be the orchestra’s next Mead composer-in-residence. Montgomery, who succeeds Missy Mazzoli in the post, will be composer in residence for three years from July 1 through June 30, 2024.
“It is an incredible opportunity and a tremendous honor for me to serve as the new Mead Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,” said Montgomery in a statement released by the orchestra. “I am deeply grateful to Maestro Muti for having faith in my experience and perspective, for giving me the chance to bring new and exciting music to the CSO, and for sharing his artistry to premiere my own works for symphony orchestra.
“In my curatorial role, I’m particularly excited about engaging more closely with the new music community in and around Chicago, as well as bridging connections between the CSO and other artists, especially composers with diverse backgrounds, experiences and approaches to music creation.
“I am truly honored to contribute to the CSO’s legacy at this time in history, and I can’t wait to get started!”
“The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has an important tradition of sharing new music with audiences,” said Riccardo Muti, CSO music director. “I am looking forward to continuing that tradition and introducing audiences to the music of composer Jessie Montgomery, whose work I have come to know and admire, in making this selection of the orchestra’s next composer-in-residence.”
Montgomery, a native New Yorker, began her violin studies at the Third Street Music School Settlement. She holds a bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the Juilliard School, and a master’s degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia from New York University.
Montgomery became involved with the Sphinx Organization in 1999, a Detroit-based nonprofit that supports young African-American and Latino string players. After receiving multiple Sphinx awards and grants as a young performer and composer, she served as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the organization’s professional touring ensemble.
During her CSO tenure, Montgomery, winner of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the ASCAP Foundation’s Leonard Bernstein Award, has been commissioned to write three works for orchestra to be premiered by the CSO–one each season–as well as curating the CSO’s MusicNOW concerts.
MusicNOW has featured Montgomery’s string quartet Break Away and the premiere of her string arrangement of Julius Eastman’s Gay Guerrilla. In the current streaming season, Montgomery’s Starburst and Strum were recently performed by the Civic Orchestra and a quintet of CSO musicians, respectively.
https://stringsmagazine.com/multi-cultural-odes-composer-violinist-and-educator-jessie-montgomery-is-a-nonstop-force/
Multi-cultural Odes: Composer, Violinist, and Educator Jessie Montgomery is a Nonstop Force
February 26, 2021
by Thomas May
From the March-April 2021 issue of Strings magazine
An unmistakable harmony holds sway in Jessie Montgomery’s creative work. Her attunement to larger cultural contexts is eloquent and persuasive. Take Banner, Montgomery’s contribution to the tributes marking the U.S. National Anthem’s bicentennial in 2014. A compact, powerful piece for string quartet and string (or chamber) orchestra, Banner confronts what she calls “the contradictions, leaps and bounds, and milestones that allow us to celebrate and maintain the tradition of our ideals.”
Montgomery’s bold sonorities challenge the anthem. They pressure it into unprecedented polyphonies of “American folk and protest songs and anthems from around the world… to create a musical melting pot,” as New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini remarked. The result is a multicultural ode—her generation’s equivalent of Jimi Hendrix’s incandescent interpretation of “The Star-Spangled Banner” (whether in its original version or as retrofitted to the string-quartet literature by Kronos).
“Banner” performed by the LA Phil.
Here and elsewhere in her growing body of compositions, Montgomery manages to project a distinctly individual voice while at the same time drawing effortlessly on wildly varying registers and influences that, with less imaginative musicians, might come across as rambling eclecticism. Her conviction of music’s social significance reinforces rather than obscures a personal vision.
“A lot of artists were leading community-development initiatives in the neighborhood. I got to witness their sense of responsibility to maintain our community and to be in solidarity with one another,” Montgomery says of her childhood in a recent Zoom interview from her home in Greenwich Village. “I would go to a lot of events and shows and gallery openings with my parents back then.”
This is how Montgomery, a native New Yorker born in 1981, recalls her upbringing in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It was an exciting crucible for artistic experimentation during her childhood there in the 1980s and early ’90s. As the daughter of artist parents in a mixed-race marriage, she had access to a view from inside the action. Her mother is the Obie Award–winning playwright, actor, and teacher Robbie McCauley, a distinguished figure in the American avant-garde theater scene. Ed Montgomery, her father, is himself a composer, jazz musician, and indie filmmaker. (With the Sedition Ensemble, the couple has collaborated on such projects as the jazz opera Congo New York.)
“I was exposed to a lot of art as a kid,” Montgomery says—in particular, art of an avant-garde nature made by people eager to question norms and test boundaries. “At the same time, I was studying violin on a traditional track.” She started taking lessons at the age of four at the Third Street Music School Settlement, the legendary community music school founded in 1894 to support the underprivileged children of the Lower East Side’s polyglot immigrant population; since last fall she has served on its board of directors. So, from a very young age, Montgomery experienced firsthand the excitement of blending musical genres and philosophies that convention had otherwise deemed somehow incompatible.
Montgomery manages to project a distinctly individual voice whileat the same time drawing effortlessly on wildly varying registers and influences.
Of her influences, Montgomery notes that “my basis and technique are really rooted in European tradition. Some of my favorite composers are Bartók, Debussy, and Britten; later, I started getting into more contemporary music, like Varèse. But I was surrounded by experimental music all the time while I was studying rigid European music—not that the music itself is rigid, but the pedagogy of it is rigid. I listened to a lot of indie pop and alt rock in high school. And I always considered myself a big consumer of jazz, though I never studied it. I grew up seeing free jazz musicians regularly, like Butch Morris, Willie Parker, violinist Billy Bang—they were part of my home life.”
The Way of Improvisation
Small wonder that bridging different worlds comes naturally to this musician. Montgomery channels her seemingly tireless creative drive into her work as composer, violinist, teacher, and curator, gracefully shifting between and sometimes amalgamating these roles. For example, she incorporates the improvisational approach that is a signature of her playing style into her teaching practice. Her model is the work of Alice Kanack, the innovative pedagogue who studied with Shinichi Suzuki and became a formative influence on Montgomery during her time at the Third Street Music School Settlement.
Regarding the method Kanack used when she was a student, which is known as Creative Ability Development, Montgomery explains: “It’s based on exercises using many repetitions, within which there are options for improvising various musical choices. This was always done in a group setting, where players would improvise these structures. This prepped me well for ensemble playing.” Montgomery regularly performs with such organizations as Silkroad and the Sphinx Virtuosi and is an avid chamber musician: she cofounded the PUBLIQuartet in 2010 and is a member of the Catalyst Quartet.
At the suggestion of her teacher, Alice Kanack, Montgomery says she began writing her own music “around age 10 or 11.”
In fact, it was her violin classes with Kanack that initially kindled Montgomery’s interest in composing. “I had been practicing improvising a lot,” she says. “Alice suggested I start composing as a way to continue that side of my musical studies, so I began writing my own music around age ten or 11.” The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center lauded her with two Composer’s Apprentice Awards in high school. For the digital season now underway, CMSLC chose Montgomery as one of the composers being highlighted in its New Milestones series: a concert stream on March 11 includes her Duo for Violin and Cello from 2018. The performers, violinist Benjamin Beilman and cellist Nicholas Canellakis, join the composer for a livestream conversation about her work on March 8.
“Jessie’s obviously a wonderful violinist herself. She writes so effectively for the instrument, which I found from playing her Rhapsody No. 1 for solo violin,” Benjamin Beilman says in an interview after recording Duo in preparation for the stream. “While there aren’t any explicitly improvisational passages in Duo, there has to be a dialogue with the cello that does resemble the spirit of improvisation. The violin bounces off whatever choices my colleague has made.”
Duo partakes of the improvisatory spirit that is a cornerstone of Montgomery’s practice—but that it does so within the framework of a three-movement chamber piece likewise informed by classical tradition enhances its fascination. Montgomery originally wrote Duo in 2015 for herself and cellist Adrienne Taylor. “It’s an ode to friendship that is meant to be fun and whimsical, representing a range of shared experiences with friends.” Montgomery recently gave the movements names (“Antics,” “In Confidence,” “Serious Fun”) that hint at this emotional arc of a friendship, alongside the camaraderie required to play chamber music honestly and engagingly.
“Duo for Violin and Cello,” Presented by the Department of Strings at the University of Michigan.
Celebrating MLK // Duo for Violin and Cello (III. Presto) by Jessie Montgomery // M.Kute & G.Hooper
January 18, 2021
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
// Duo for Violin and Cello III. Presto Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)
Malhar Kute, violin Gabrielle Hooper, cello //
Works by Black Composers Presented by the Department of Strings at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance Celebrating the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. January 2021
“I have several pieces with open sections that call for improvisation,” she says. “Some of my compositions, like my solo violin pieces, can and should be played with an improvisatory attitude. Whenever I get questions about what speed to take or how to phrase a passage, I always end up saying: ‘This is your piece now. The tempos are what I think needs to happen for the music to feel coherent, but I write it in a way that I hope gives an elasticity for you to make it your own.’ Duo needs to have that flexibility.”
Combining Creativity and Social Justice
While an undergraduate at Juilliard, Montgomery shifted her focus to violin performance. “But in the course of my junior year, I began writing again on my own, outside school, and was composing pieces for colleagues after I graduated.” She then worked for half a decade at the MusicWorks Collective in Providence, Rhode Island, where she focused on her interest in music as a vehicle for social justice, writing pieces for the students and for her own chamber group.
All of this activity, Montgomery says, “cascaded into my first real commission”: Strum for string quartet or quintet, which is also available in a version for string orchestra. Initially written for Community MusicWorks and premiered in 2006, it was revised in 2012 on a commission from the Sphinx Organization. Along with her chamber compositons, Montgomery’s catalog to date includes songs, orchestral pieces, and film music—the last category reflecting her graduate studies at New York University’s film scoring program. “I enjoy that application of story or narrative to help me find structure for my piece,” she remarks. “And it’s a fun way to do research and find historical and or musical references that might be relevant to what I’m trying to discover.”
“Strum,” performed by the Catalyst Quartet.
Montgomery believes that her work as a touring performer and educator has kept her from being closed in by silo thinking as a composer—“which can happen a lot in classical music. I’m able to get myself out in the world, often playing my own pieces with quartets. I think that helped getting the wheels turning early on.”
The Sphinx Organization, with which she has been affiliated since the late 1990s, is a longstanding anchor for Montgomery’s social-justice concerns. One of the most powerful advocates at work today for diversity in the arts, Sphinx named her composer-in-residence with its professional touring ensemble, the Sphinx Virtuosi, and, in 2015, awarded her a grant for her debut album, which includes Strum—by now one of her signature pieces—as the title track.
“I feel that my social-justice commitment is most present when I’m working with students and talking about what their futures might look like says Montgomery.
Strum: Music for Strings (Azica Records) is a collection of Montgomery’s music for strings. In essence, the album seamlessly braids together several aspects of her artistic practice. It demonstrates her work as both composer and performer; her fluent command of classical language, of the vernacular idioms of African American spirituals and folk music, and of the intersectional potential of the string quartet; and her engagement with social justice.
Of the last-mentioned aspect, Montgomery elaborates: “I feel that my social-justice commitment is most present when I’m working with students and talking about what their futures might look like—in the way I discuss their self-leadership and advocacy for their own work and artistic voice. In addition, just being an African American person and writing music that references these traditions can fall under the realm of social justice in that it’s acknowledging the contributions of oppressed peoples and making sure that audiences are remembering and recognizing the importance of those contributions.” And her work as an artistic board member for several organizations, she adds, creates “yet another opportunity to reach a larger field and make an impact.”
Expanding Her Vision
A recent project in which these goals also intersect was to have had its premiere last spring: a “musical reimagining” with Jannina Norpoth of Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera Treemonisha, the first opera by a Black artist about life in the aftermath of slavery. It was produced by Volcano Theatre and co-commissioned by Washington Performing Arts, Stanford University, Southbank Centre (London), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Banff Centre for the Arts.
The reanimated, freshly adapted Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha became one of several casualties of the pandemic, during a season that would have seen numerous premieres of Montgomery’s work. When it does premiere, it will represent her first operatic collaboration. Montgomery is also eagerly awaiting the completion of a new song cycle for soprano Julia Bullock, who premiered her Five Slave Songs as part of Bullock’s 2018–19 residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A nonet for winds and strings titled Sergeant McCauley (2019) and commissioned by Music Accord for Imani Winds and Catalyst Quartet similarly fuses Montgomery’s flair for blending genres—neatly mirrored in the mixture of timbres and registers—with a natural gift for storytelling. Already in demand to compose dance music, Montgomery is preparing to make her debut as an original opera composer (alongside the Treemonisha project). The opera shares its title with that of the nonet and is based on the experiences of the composer’s great-grandfather, who was a Buffalo Soldier (with the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army).
“The Buffalo Soldiers were also simultaneously participating in the Great Migration,” she explains. “I’m charting his path during that time in the early 1900s, trying to find songs—spirituals and/or other folk songs from the regions of America he traveled in—to use as anchors for moments in the opera. I like that multidimensional way of looking at a piece.”
https://www.wamc.org/new-england-news/2021-07-23/composer-jessie-montgomery-makes-tanglewood-debut-saturday-with-starburst
New England News
Composer Jessie Montgomery Makes Tanglewood Debut Saturday With “Starburst”
WAMC Northeast Public Radio
by Josh Landes July 23, 2021
New England News
AUDIO
LISTEN: 10:06 
Boston Symphony Orchestra
On Saturday, composer Jessie Montgomery makes her Tanglewood debut with the performance of her piece “Starburst.” Born and raised on the Lower East Side in the 1980s, Montgomery – also a violinist and educator – has seen her work performed across the United States and abroad. Recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, she was selected by the New York Philharmonic to participate in its 2020 celebration of the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment – which prohibited denying the right to vote based on sex – called Project 19. WAMC spoke with Montgomery about “Starburst,” and about her efforts to increase the visibility of people of color in the classical music community.
MONTGOMERY: I wrote it originally for it was written for the Sphinx Virtuosi, which is a touring chamber orchestra that is run by the Sphinx Organization in Detroit. The piece is meant to feature all of the fun and dazzling things that strings can do, especially when you have full orchestra size of them. I had this idea of stars exploding in space, because I thought that was a really exciting gestural idea. And so I wanted to, I knew that there was going to offer a lot of opportunities for special colors and special, unexpected combinations of colors and gestures within the ensemble to sort of create that sense of explosion and quick moving light. It's really meant to be fun in a dazzling kind of opener type of fanfare, I suppose you could say, that hopefully captures that sense of delight and excitement.
WAMC: What inspired the composition?
Mainly, the people that I was writing for at the time, the ensemble is writing for. I knew sort of what their temperament was. So I definitely use that as an inspiration, the temperament of that ensemble being like, a lot of energy. And it was going to be our first tour that season where we were not going to have a conductor. So it was the sense that each voice is really necessary, in order for the whole thing to come together, and each- There's a lot of divisi parts where there are individual sections, or individuals within the orchestra, that will have to lead certain transitions and gestures. So with that in mind, that was, those were some of the guiding forces and ideas behind the sort of energy of the piece.
You've been involved with the sings organization for over 20 years now? Do you describe what they do, and then what's drawn you to work with them for so long?
Sphinx is an incredible organization that has been committed to diversity within classical music, specifically offering professional opportunities for Black and Latinx string players. And over the years, they have included other collaborators and ambassadors, musical ambassadors, and also administrative ambassadors, in all different areas of music, actually, not just within classical music, who have worked towards just creating more opportunities and more visibility for Black and Latinx artists within the United States and also abroad. So this has been an incredible mission. I was a laureate in their competition when I was first a teenager. And then I've been participated in the competition several years beyond that, and have also taught at some of their summer programs. And I've also been a member of the Catalyst Quartet, one of their premier ensembles that was formed within the Sphinx Organization, and also performed with Sphinx Virtuosi, etcetera. So I've had a lot of interaction with the organization. I also was very generously given a Sphinx Medal of Excellence, which is one of their largest awards and honors that they offer within the organization. So it's been a very, very long history of support. And they have just been an incredible force throughout my career and also those of many of my colleagues. So I just continue to be impressed by the work that they're doing.
It strikes me that their mission hits on this interesting tension in the classical world- A lot of associations of classical music are that of exclusivity, of it being an elite art form. Obviously, the work that the organization does is trying to crack open that concept. Can you speak to your own experiences with negotiating that as a classical composer and performer?
You know, one of the things that I think is specifically remarkable about the Sphinx Organization is that they sort of take on this attitude that yes, there needs to be more visibility for Black and Latinx musicians. But once you actually put everyone together, it's becomes very, very clear that there are so many people participating in classical music who traditionally have not been given the spotlight. And it's such an incredible pool of talent and participation, that I think that that realization is what's most important, I think, for the rest of the industry to sort of to observe and recognize. And that from there, these folks are not, like, new to the scene that we have been working and doing, participating in classical music in various forms for a very, very long time. I just- I think it's a wonderful moment that we're confronting the reality of that and hopefully continuing to open doors and create more participation within our community for anyone who's able and willing and wants to participate.
Jessie, you've talked about how improvisation plays a role in your compositions, can you break down for me how that vein of creativity can play into a structured piece?
Yeah, I love the idea of music that is bending and flexing. I do have a very strong desire for structure and order within my music. But then I also like to play against that. So that's where the improvisation comes in, where suddenly something that was really organized and structured now is, like, totally let loose and allows for the musicians to sort of put their own voice into it. And not just in their sound, but in the kinds of musical gestures and things that they might want to offer to the piece. And so I just, I love the dialogue between those two things. That's what I, one of the ways in which I sort of think of my music as a continually adapting entity.
What else is coming up for you this year, Jessie?
I'm really looking forward to, there's going to be a wonderful premiere this August at Sun Valley Music Festival with Julia Bullock, soprano. They're going to be doing- This is going to be a premiere of a work called ‘A History of Persistent Voice’ that we have been collaborating on for a couple of years now. And this premiere is going to be a new, updated revised version of that work, which includes a series of works, including my ‘Five Freedom Songs’ they're called, which are arrangements of spirituals for strings, percussion and voice. And then works by other composers Allison Loggins-Hull and Courtney Bryan and Tanya León that's going to be premiering in the first week of August at the Sun Valley Music Festival. There's also going to be some performances this summer with several orchestras in the UK, actually. Some youth orchestra festivals. One in particular is with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, is going to be playing ‘Records From a Vanishing City,’ and another piece of mine, ‘Soul Force,’ and another one, ‘Banner.’ So they're actually going to be playing a series of my works all happening this summer at Saffron Hall and Royal Festival Hall and Royal Albert Hall also this summer. So there's a lot of- it’s nice, UK activity this summer. So it's pretty exciting.
Lastly, Jessie, what is on your summer playlist? What are you listening to this summer?
Ah, I am listening to a really amazing- There's this really amazing release that just came out of a very good friend of mine named Gabe Cabezas and his work with composer Gabriella Smith. They have this amazing album that they did called ‘Lost Coast,’ which is all solo cello and voice but sort of crafted in this very, very expansive kind of collage, just- And it's like it's so impressive that it's just this collaboration between the two of them, but it takes on, it really feels like it's almost like there's an entire ensemble playing these pieces and it's just a beautifully crafted album. So I've been listening to that a lot. And I also have another really great album by a very dear friend of mine, Curtis Stewart, violinist and also professor at the Juilliard School. He just put out incredible album called ‘Of Power,’ which expresses and explores the position and points of view sort of that we've all been facing this year of who's in power and who deserves to have power and what are the definitions of freedom and justice and just exploring that through music and a really generous, generous way that I think brings people into a really nice open sort of dialogue with that with his material. So I think that’s- Those are two that are really special.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER:
Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
https://mkiartists.com/artists/jessie-montgomery
Jessie Montgomery
composer
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Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Berstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).
Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.
Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Shift, Change, Turn (2019) commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Coincident Dances (2018) for the Chicago Sinfonietta, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – written to mark the 200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner – for The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation.
Since1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players and has served as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. She was a two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition and was awarded their highest honor, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization.
The New York Philharmonic has selected Jessie as one of the featured composers for their Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting equal voting rights in the United States to women. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley and to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Thomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and The Sphinx Organization; a new orchestral work for the National Symphony Orchestra; a viola concerto, L.E.S. Characters, for Masumi per Rostad commissioned by the Grant Park Music Festival, City Music Cleveland, Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Orlando Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; a new arrangement of a song cycle, Five Freedom Songs, written for Soprano Julia Bullock, and a site-specific collaboration with Bard SummerScape Festival and Pam Tanowitz Dance, I was waiting for the echo of a better day, with Choreography by Pam Tanowitz and music by Jessie Montgomery and Big Dog Little Dog.
Jessie began her violin studies at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst Quartet, she continues to maintain an active performance career as a violinist appearing regularly with her own ensembles, as well as with the Silkroad Ensemble and Sphinx Virtuosi.
Jessie’s teachers and mentors include Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, Alice Kanack, Joan Tower, Derek Bermel, Mark Suozzo, Ira Newborn, and Laura Kaminsky. She holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a Graduate Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton University. She is Professor of violin and composition at The New School. In May 2021, she will begin her appointment as the Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
https://www.ft.com/content/5a3d50fa-b052-4ec6-a4c3-cfd73b416d23
Composer Jessie Montgomery on going back to her roots
The American violinist’s busy diary includes upcoming performances at BBC Proms and the Edinburgh Festival
Jessie Montgomery’s music infuses myriad cultural and social elements © Jiyang Chen
For Jessie Montgomery, growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan was clearly a formative experience. When she looks back at her childhood, she sees a time of enviable opportunities and cultural richness. “It was a very neat upbringing,” she says. “I always had a very eclectic experience with music and art, and that has been a tremendous gift.” Now, those years immersed in an all-embracing mix of music and theatre have borne fruit in a high-profile musical career. At 39, Montgomery has won a multi-faceted reputation as a violinist, musical educator and, foremost, a composer who likes to stretch musical boundaries. She has had a busy year. At the start of July she took up the position of Mead composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and international performances of her music are on the up. In the UK, this weekend (August 7) marks the first time one of her works has been heard in a main evening concert at the BBC Proms, when the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain plays the much-acclaimed Banner. Next weekend (August 15) she is looking forward to a prominent date at the Edinburgh International Festival. This latter concert revives a valued connection. Montgomery’s Strum is opening a concert by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop, who is “an incredible supporter, taking interest in my work, scheduling it regularly, and I am so grateful to her for bringing this piece to Edinburgh”, says Montgomery. Jessie Montgomery and Ricky Ian Gordon performing Gordon’s ‘Love Song for Antonia’ © Getty Images The playful Strum, originally a cello quintet but more recently reimagined for string orchestra, teases the players with unusual techniques, including the strumming of the title. Fun for the audience, it feels as if it recaptures the energy of Montgomery’s youthful years in the Lower East Side. That was, she says, a time of rapid change. “The neighbourhood had been through a lot of upheaval as a result of corrupt landlords, so there were many abandoned buildings. It became an opportunity for artists and other immigrant residents to reform the community and participate in the rebuild by creating galleries and art spaces.” The Montgomery family threw itself into cultural life there. “My mum was a poet and playwright, and my dad ran a music studio where artists were always coming in and out,” she says. “I was very lucky, but the area had its hard parts too, and at one point people did not want to come there because of the social problems in the neighbourhood.” I am working on an opera about my great-great-grandfather, who was a buffalo soldier in the black cavalry in the late 19th century The combination of cultural wealth and social challenges is a vital mix that has found its way into Montgomery’s music. Although she is keen to emphasise that much of what she writes is purely abstract, there is a clear thread of works that carry a social message. They can be traced back to Banner, the work that is being performed at the BBC Proms. This was a commission from the Sphinx Organisation, a Detroit-based institution dedicated to diversity in the arts, and celebrated the 200th anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the US national anthem. Montgomery’s rhapsody on American musical styles, from folk to pop and everything in between, is an exuberant, multicultural anthem for the 21st century. Other recent works include the Five Freedom Songs, exploring the lesser-known spirituals of the African-American people. In 2019, Montgomery was invited to take part in the New York Philharmonic’s Project 19, marking the centenary of the 19th amendment, when American women secured the vote. “My mum wrote the lyrics for the piece and it was nice to have full circle working together.” Did she take up some of the social issues that interested her parents? “Absolutely,” she says. “When I was growing up, I was rebellious against the idea of being political because my parents were so entrenched. That was their world and I had my world, traipsing around the Lower East Side and playing the violin. But now I am working on an opera about my great-great-grandfather, who was a buffalo soldier [in] the black cavalry in the late 19th and early 20th century. My mum has a long history of works based on family connections and my project continues that, offering a perspective on the progress of black people in the US, migration and the influence on the military in general.” Montgomery is still flush from a recent success in upstate New York, albeit of a very different kind. In the historic parkland of Montgomery Place, adjacent to the main campus of Bard College, Montgomery and choreographer Pam Tanowitz collaborated on I was waiting for the echo of a better day, an open-air dance commission. The idea was to conceive music in relation to the natural surroundings and it was, says Montgomery, “a challenge battling the weather, but I am very proud of it”. Also scheduled for performance, but postponed due to the pandemic, is a reworking of Treemonisha, American composer Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera set on a former slave plantation in Arkansas. Full of catchy ragtime tunes, Joplin’s opera has never attained the popularity it might have done and the intention is to fill out its rather flimsy story by exploring the characters’ connections to their African roots. The reimagined Treemonisha looks likely to be one of the early events in Montgomery’s busy diary. Recommended ReviewMusic First Night of the Proms — ‘fearsome momentum’ “I don’t have any specific idea about where I want music to go,” she says. “It goes where it goes. Creative licence for artists is important, as we should all be free to write whatever feels right for our personal expression. What I would really like to see is people coming to concerts excited about new ideas. Being open to music and participating in it live is the most uplifting experience.” ‘Banner’ will be performed at the BBC Proms on August 7, bbc.co.uk/proms ‘Strum’ will be performed at the Edinburgh International Festival on August 15, eif.co.uk Follow @ftweekend on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first
https://www.silkroad.org/artists-jessie-montgomery
JESSIE MONTGOMERY
Violin
Jessie Montgomery is a New York native violinist, composer, and music educator. She is a co-founder of PUBLIQuartet, an ensemble of composers and arrangers playing their own music as well as that of emerging and established contemporary composers. Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports the accomplishments of young African-American and Latino string players. Since 2012 Jessie has held a post as Composer-in-Residence with the Sphinx Virtuosi, a conductor-less string orchestra, has been a two-time laureate in the annual Sphinx Competion, and was awarded an MPower grant to assist in the development of her debut album, Strum: Music for Strings. As well as being a traditionally trained classical musician, Jessie has collaborated as an improviser with several avant-garde greats such as Don Byron, Butch Morris and William Parker. Jessie holds a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School in violin performance and a Master’s Degree in composition and film scoring from New York University.
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https://floridaorchestra.org/for-composer-jessie-montgomery-music-is-her-voice/
For composer Jessie Montgomery, music is her voice
Post author:Kurt Loft
Post published:October 26, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have created something of a platform for the violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery, whose engrossing work Strum opens TFO’s new season this weekend. Demand for the Juilliard-trained musician’s works in concert halls and online – as well as compositions by other modern African American artists – has nearly doubled, giving her a voice that seemed unimaginable only a year ago.
As orchestras and smaller ensembles slowly return to the public stage, they are bringing with them not just Mozart and Beethoven, but music with an edge, works that reflect artistic response to current events. This has also encouraged groups to explore a wider range of pieces by people such as Montgomery, who at age 39 has an impressive musical portfolio.
Although purely abstract, Strum is part of her effort to contribute to an American sound, at the same time making an impact through the intersection of social justice and the arts. Her commitment to addressing inequity is one reason the New York Philharmonic this year honored her as a featured composer for its Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment and a woman’s right to vote.
Montgomery calls music her “connection to the world,’’ and it challenges her to make clear the things she doesn’t understand. Creating a short piece like Strum often is anything but an academic exercise; it often comes from the gut.
“It’s an emotional process in that I have to be willing and able to work creatively and openly, which is very much tied to mood and general pacing of my day,’’ she said. “But if I’m working to convey any particular emotion in the piece, I’m not necessarily feelingthat emotion when I’m writing. I think the ebb and flow and emotional expression in the music happen somehow on another plane, through the performer’s interpretation.’’
Montgomery appeared with her group, the Sphinx Virtuosi, in St. Petersburg earlier this year, but as a performer. This week, the focus is on her own music. Hearing one of her original pieces performed by an orchestra – especially a first performance – is often a tense affair because she never knows where things might go.
“To be honest, I get really nervous during premieres,’’ she added. “Usually, if I’ve had a chance to rehearse the piece with players ahead of time, it can ease that anxiety, but I still get excited and nervous as if I’m performing myself!’’
Originally written for string quartet and revised for string orchestra, Strum opens with a compact, sweetly lyrical melody framed by pizzicato strings. Instruments soon swirl to a dance-like tempo, with jarring notes giving way to a spacious harmony. A new idea emerges as the ensemble turns upbeat, dashes off a few piercing harmonics and a thicket of plucked strings at a vigorous pace. The piece comes to rest on a final, muted note.
And that’s part of the challenge of composing a new work – how do you know when to end it?
“This is tricky,’’ she added. “If there are time constraints already placed on the work, I’m somewhat obliged to end rather purposefully. But in general, I feel like I know when the piece is ending. I rarely want to add more to a work horizontally. But I often want to re-write sections or make edits that strengthen the orchestration well after the first performance.’’
Not familiar with Strum? Watch part of it in this video by the Minnesota Orchestra:
Jessie Montgomery's Strum
October 6, 2020
Minnesota Orchestra
Originally conceived for string quintet, this contemporary work for string orchestra, according to the composer, draws on “American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement” and “has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.” Watch the full performance:
https://mnorch.vhx.tv/videos/vanska-c...
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interview-with-composer-and-violinist-jessie-montgomery/id293233634?i=1000437166808
Apple Podcasts Preview
Interview with composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery Arts Conversations
Performing Arts
Jessie talks with Wayla about her music for the new Dance Theatre of Harlem ballet (a world premiere that takes place this weekend, commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival and the 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution), as well as her work with the Sphinx Organization and recent developments in the American orchestral landscape.
More Episodes
https://theviolinchannel.com/vc-interview-violinist-composer-jessie-montgomery-2019-sphinx-organization-medal-of-excellence/
Classical Music News
MEET THE PROS
VC INTERVIEWS
VC INTERVIEW | Jessie Montgomery - 2020 Sphinx Organization "Medal of Excellence" Recipient
VC recently caught up with American violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery - the recipient of the 2020 Sphinx Organization "Medal of Excellence"
October 10, 2019
The Violin Channel recently caught up with American violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery - the recent recipient of the 2020 Sphinx Organization "Medal of Excellence".
The Sphinx Organization is a US non-profit organization dedicated to the development of young American Black and Latin classical musicians.
Congratulations Jesse. Please tell us a little about yourself?
"I am a composer and violinist, born and raised in New York City.
My compositions more recently have been guided by both personal and social justice narratives, though my music in a broader sense is greatly inspired by folk idioms and other forms of popular song.
I live and work now in Princeton, NJ where I am working toward my PhD in composition."
How does it feel to be the recipient of a prestigious Sphinx Organization 'Medal of Excellence'?
"This is an extremely exciting moment! I have been affiliated with Sphinx for many years now, and have served many roles as an artist within the organization.
They have been a tremendous and invaluable support to me for this time.
I am so honored to be recognized in this capacity and offered even more of an opportunity to grow and change as a performer and composer."
What has been your association with the Sphinx Organization? And how important is the work they are doing to support musicians and cultural entrepreneurs of color?
"I began my relationship with Sphinx as a junior division competitor (some) years ago, and have since been a two-time laureate in the senior division, taught at the Sphinx Performance Academy, have been Composer-in-Residence with the Sphinx Virtuosi, a member of the Catalyst Quartet, and served on various panels for their annual conference.
I cannot stress enough how important this organization has been for me and for all of the musicians they have served and continue to serve.
My community has grown because of their work, and it has been inspiring to communities outside of the Sphinx network change and be inspired to change their views on who deserves what opportunities in classical music.
I see things becoming more equalized in small pockets of our field--little by little, the shift is happening."
What will you use the $50,000 grant towards?
"Not telling yet! (Just kidding...).
I have projects in mind that have only been seedlings of ideas so far--one of which is to create my own ensemble collective wherein I can workshop my pieces and explore more practices in seamless transitions between composed and improvised music.
I am also working on a long term project to write an oratorio about my great-grandfather, Sgt. William McCauley who was a Buffalo Soldier who fought in WWI, the Spanish-American War, the Mexican War and also worked on building the Panama Canal and U.S. Railroads.
His story both unique and also totally shared among many -- learning more about him has brought me to a deeper understanding of my place in time and aspirations going forward, which I hope has a common effect on others as well."
What have been the highlights of your career so far?
"Definitely one of the highlights has been having the opportunity to play in the Silkroad Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma, my first time being in 2016. Not only was it a dream to be able to perform along-side one of the greatest musicians alive, but he's not the only one!
The Silkroad Ensemble is teeming with expert genius musicians from all over the world. When I came to my first rehearsal with them, I felt like my world was opening up and that my musical horizons were expanding by the minute. My first week with them was boundlessly exciting and educational.
Another really big moment was when the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra premiered Records from A Vanishing City at Carnegie Hall in 2016 (that was a big year!).
As a New Yorker, growing up hearing Orpheus, it was an incredible way to come full circle and land in that spot, introducing my own music to the audience. I felt things were coming full circle for me and that gave me a lot of confidence to keep striving as a composer."
Who have been your most influential mentors and inspirations?
"This is a big list and there isn't enough room on the page to discuss them all, but absolutely, my violin teachers: Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, Lynelle Smith and Alice Kanack. I think of them basically every time I practice! (Thank you!)
The skills and the love of learning that they all taught stay with me everywhere I go.
Whenever I find myself focusing on the beautiful minutiae involved in playing the violin, there is always some reminder that pops into my head, some phrase or explanation that gets traced back to one of my lessons. I can almost see them calmly directing me to understand.
I'll never forget Ms. Thomas saying to me one time, in her direct and concise way, where you knew that what you just heard was something you would need to consider over a very long time. 'There is a lot to learn in studying the violin. It's not just about 'this' [miming a violin posture]'.
She taught patience, attention to detail, and assertiveness."
What important piece of advice have you learned from your mentors that you’d like to pass on?
"One of my best friends and mentors is Sebastian Ruth, the founder of Community MusicWorks in Providence.
I'll never forget the moment he said to me (after having "caught" me mid musical thought in the barn during a residence at Greenwood Music camp) "You really seem charged up by composing! It looks like you should probably keep doing that!"
It was a simple acknowledgment from a friend but also a reminder that whatever thing brings a spark into your eyes, whatever motivates you to take time to create and in whichever form, that's where you should continue to go."
https://www.charlottesymphony.org/blog/composer-know-jessie-montgomery/
Sound of Charlotte Blog
A Composer to Know: Jessie MontgomeryFebruary 1, 2021
A composer, violinist, and educator, Jessie Montgomery's music melds the classical tradition with elements of folk music, spirituals, improvisation, language, and social justice. As a rising star in today's classical music scene Jessie has made a name for herself composing works that have been described as "turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life" (The Washington Post).
Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development.
Her parents - her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller - were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.
Through her music, Montgomery often explores the theme of what it means to be an American (especially a Black woman in America), her heritage, and what her parents have experienced in this country.
"My privilege [to be able to compose and make art] comes from my parents having fought through the civil rights movement," Montgomery said in a 2016 interview with New Music USA. "My mom was very active, actually, and she was in many of the protests, and my dad, just being a rogue artist, that's an act of protest in itself - but it's just this idea that I came from that period, the political changes that happened during that time, so that's what it means to me, to be an American."
Montgomery's work, Starburst, was commissioned by the Sphinx Organization and premiered by its resident Sphinx Virtuosi in 2012. Montgomery writes:
"This brief one-movement work for string orchestra is a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors. Exploding gestures are juxtaposed with gentle fleeting melodies in an attempt to create a multidimensional soundscape. A common definition of a starburst, 'the rapid formation of large numbers of new stars in a galaxy at a rate high enough to alter the structure of the galaxy significantly,' lends itself almost literally to the nature of the performing ensemble that premiered the work, the Sphinx Virtuosi, and I wrote the piece with their dynamic in mind."
Hear Jessie Montgomery's Starburst performed by your Charlotte Symphony - streamed live from the Knight Theater on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 7:30 pm (watch through Feb. 13). >> Details
Posted in Classics. Tagged as composer.
https://www.orartswatch.org/refreshing-and-overwhelming/
Oregon ArtsWatch
MUSIC
Refreshing and overwhelming
An interview with composer-violinist Jessie Montgomery, performed and performing this weekend at Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival
August 16, 2019
MUSIC
by Angela Allen
Rising-star—or risen constellation—composer Jessie Montgomery will light up Sokol Blosser Winery’s Dundee tasting room for two concerts Aug. 17 and 18, final weekend of this year’s Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival. (See my Oregon Arts Watch feature story.)
Expect excitement, as well as three 2-ounce pours of Sokol Blosser vintages throughout the concert, which includes two compositions by Montgomery, Baroque composer Elisabeth–Claude Jacquet’s “Sonata for D for Violin and Cello” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 132.
The program’s centerpiece, Montgomery’s 7-minute quartet Strum, is “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life,” wrote a Washington Post critic. “It sounded like a handful of American folk melodies tossed into a strong wind, cascading and tumbling joyfully around one another.”
Composer-violinist Jessie Montgomery.
Like that much-praised and much-played composition, Montgomery at 37 has the energy, talent and flourishing reputation to fuel many more years of composing, advocating for people of color, and playing the violin. She is a member of the New York-based Catalyst Quartet, a collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble, and recipient of numerous commissions from top chamber and dance groups. Those efforts and honors comprise a small chunk of her accomplishments, accolades and advocacies.
Compositional Catalysts
At a Utah workshop for emerging composers and quartets that Montgomery attended a few years ago, venerable American composer Joan Tower insisted “that music is emotional—you make certain structural choices” accordingly, Montgomery said. Tower, who was last year’s WVCMF composer-in-residence, became a valued mentor and regular teacher for Montgomery. Another important mentor was Laura Kaminsky, composer of Portland Opera’s recent chamber piece, As One. The connection led to a commission for the 8-minute 2013 quartet Source Code, the other Montgomery composition on this weekend’s program.
An accomplished violinist, Montgomery will be fiddling with the chamber players for the concerts. As brightly as her star is burning in the new-music composition sky, Montgomery says she becomes “depressed” when she doesn’t play her violin. She has been doing that since she was four years old, growing up on the vibrant lower East Side of Manhattan among artists, neighborhood activists, politicos and musicians during the 1980s and ‘90s.
Her first teacher, Alice Kanack at the Third Street Music School Settlement in Manhattan, encouraged improvisation within modes. “It shaped my thinking and inspired me to start composing by age 11,” she told ArtsWatch. A supportive music teacher was thrilled that she composed a piece for her junior high school band. In high school, she twice received the Composer’s Apprentice Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Montgomery now resides in the same apartment she lived in as a child with actress/playwright/professor mother Robbie McCauley and musician father Ed Montgomery, but this fall she will move to Princeton University, where she is a graduate fellow and PhD candidate in musical composition. She has an undergraduate degree from Juilliard in violin performance and a Masters in composition and film scoring from New York University, and teaches improvisation workshops and works with high-school level black and Latino string players at the Sphinx Performance Academy, an organization dedicated to diversity in music.
“Strum,” which Montgomery composed in 2006 and revised several times, was “originally conceived for a quintet of two violins, violas and two cellos, so the voicing is often spread over the ensemble, giving the music an expansive sound,” she said. “I utilized `texture motives’—layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinatos (repeating figures)—to form a bed of sound for/melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, ‘Strum’ has a narrative that begins with a fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.” Next month, Strum also appears on a program by the Louisville Orchestra, led by progressive maestro and Britt Festival music director Teddy Abrams. And in November, the Eugene Symphony performs her Records from a Vanishing City.
For a young composer whose yesteryear favorites are Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók, expect contemporary fireworks—even if each of her pieces is less than 10 minutes.
We talked to Montgomery by phone from her home in New York before she arrived this August in Oregon for her residency.
On her compositions
I compose on the piano and on the violin. I sing a lot when I write. Playing the violin unlocks my thinking. I get super depressed when I don’t play.
My music is organized around pitch and harmony. I get a little obsessed about pitch. I pay attention to the physical arc of the music. It’s both a visceral and a narrative process. Some of my pieces are deliberately narrative. I’m concerned with the evolution of a piece. I’m fascinated by the colors and textures. I’ve always experimented with those things.
It’s easier to work out the details with the musicians with chamber music as opposed to orchestras. You have limited time, and it can be hectic working with orchestras and large groups. You’re lucky if you get 40 minutes.
On inclusivity in classical music
Recently there has been a lot of effort by organizations, large and small, to highlight the works of marginalized groups, in particular women composers and women composers of color. At the crux of this time of change is a desire to enrich our art forms with more diverse voices and to enrich our own curiosity in artists’ perspectives.
There has been a kind of sudden burst of interest that is both refreshing and overwhelming at the same time. It is sometimes hard to know if people are genuinely interested in the content or if they are fulfilling a quota. Either way, the exposure that this music and these composers get, such as Valerie Coleman, Courtney Bryan and Florence Price, is timely and greatly appreciated by artists and audiences.
I just finished a festival in Rochester, N.Y. called Gateways that heavily featured the works of Price, the “godmother” of black American concert music. She was overlooked in her lifetime due to her social status, and now her works are finally receiving deserved recognition, and her significant position in our history is being acknowledged.
Some of the attention is money-driven (some organizations have been threatened by promises of revoking funding if their programs do not feature works by people of color), so as a composer of color, one always hopes the interest is genuinely about discovering new music.
[Classical music] is trying to be more inclusive. There’s been a lot of interest in my work. It’s a good moment for me. Whether people are genuinely interested—that’s the tricky part. There’s a surge, an interest in broadening the pool. It’s a positive thing, but awkward sometimes. It’s a change. Audiences are changing. There are a lot more diverse audiences for new music. The audiences are younger, there’s a wider range. But it’s a slow process. There are many unknowns and I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds.
Angela Allen lives in Portland and writes about the arts. She is a published poet and photographer and teaches creative and journalistic writing to Portland-area students. In 2019, she was elected to the executive board of the Music Critics Association of North America. Her website is angelaallenwrites.com.
Want to read more music news in Oregon? Support Oregon ArtsWatch!
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER:
Angela Allen writes about the arts, especially opera, jazz, chamber music, and photography. Since 1984, she has contributed regularly to online and print publications, including Oregon ArtsWatch, The Columbian, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Willamette Week, The Oregonian, among others. She teaches photography and creative writing to Oregon students, and in 2009, served as Fishtrap’s Eastern Oregon Writer-in-Residence. A published poet and photographer, she’s a member of the Music Critics Association of North America and a recipient of an NEA-Columbia Journalism grant. She earned an M.A. in journalism from University of Oregon in 1984, and 30 years later received her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Portland with her scientist husband and often unwieldy garden. Contact Angela Allen through her website.
https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/nyc/new-milestones-2020-21/composers-in-focus-jessie-montgomery/
Composers in Focus: Jessie Montgomery
Monday, March 8, 6:30 PM
Composer. Violinist. Educator.
Jessie Montgomery stands as an acute interpreter of 21st-century American sound and experience.
CMS welcomes Jessie Montgomery and offers audiences a rare opportunity to sit in on an intimate conversation between Jessie and violinist Benjamin Beilman. This webinar-style presentation will include live, real-time conversations with Jessie as well as pre-recorded performances of her work Duo for Violin and Cello, performed by Benjamin Beilman, violin, and Nicholas Canellakis, cello.
Get familiar with the artist below.
Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21s t-century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).
Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.
Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Shift, Change, Turn… (2019) commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Coincident Dances (2018) for the Chicago Sinfonietta, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – written to mark the 200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner – for The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation.
Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composerin-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. She was a two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition and was awarded their highest honor, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization.
The New York Philharmonic has selected Jessie as one of the featured composers for their Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting equal voting rights in the United States to women. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley and to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Thomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and The Sphinx Organization; and a new orchestral work for the National Symphony.
Jessie began her violin studies, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and currently a member of the Catalyst Quartet, she continues to maintain an active performance career as a violinist appearing regularly with her own ensembles, as well as with the Silkroad Ensemble and Sphinx Virtuosi.
Jessie’s teachers and mentors include Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, Alice Kanack, Joan Tower, Derek Bermel, Mark Suozzo, Ira Newborn, and Laura Kaminsky. She holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University
http://communitymusicworks.org/about/who-we-are/twenty-years-twenty-stories/20-stories-jessie/
20 Stories: Jessie Montgomery
Jessie Montgomery. Photo by Jiyang Chen
Violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery graduated from Julliard in 2003 and came to Community MusicWorks a year later. She was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, “a hotbed of cultural activity and community development,” as she describes it. She studied violin at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the nation’s oldest community organizations, and brought some of its innovative practices to CMW in the form of Music Lab, where students learn to express their unique instrumental voice through improvisation. After leaving CMW in 2009, Jessie helped found the highly praised PUBLIQuartet, which features its own compositions and those of other contemporary string composers. She was also a member of the acclaimed Catalyst Quartet and is affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latino string players. She is commissioned regularly to compose. Her album Strum: Music for Strings, was released in 2015.
I knew a wonderful, very entrepreneurial violinist named Quinton Morris. I was in a group with him called the Young Eight, and he had met Sara Stalnaker [former resident cellist] at the Chamber Music America Conference in New York. She said, “Why don’t you guys do workshops?” So we ended up doing a workshop. Minna Choi was about to go to graduate school and they were looking for a violinist to take her place while she was gone. Jesse Holstein pulled me aside during snack. He leaned over on the edge of his chair and put his arm on the table and said, “So, what are you up to next year? Come take an audition. ” And I was like, “Okay, sure.” I had no idea.
I remember very vividly the conversation that I had with Sebastian in my interview. I remember feeling extremely insecure. I understood it was a community organization, I understood that there was an administrative aspect to what I was going to be expected to do, and there was this whole organization that I was going to have to get to know, but I had no idea, really. He prompted me with great questions like, “What do you feel is your role inside of a community and how do you see yourself functioning as a musician within a community organization?” I just remember the feeling of looking at him and he seemed so calm and thoughtful and patient and I was clueless. The journey began, yeah.
It was my first time having my own teaching studio. I had to keep track of all of my students’ ins and outs and violins and shoulder rests and books and papers and music and scheduling. It took me about two years to really feel like I had a handle on enough of the moving parts that I was pulling my weight. There was also the huge learning curve of being in the quartet. That was my first professional quartet experience. I was younger than everyone else, and having to figure out how to fit into what they had going on. Then, musically, figuring out what I even felt–not going on autopilot. It was musically very challenging as well and I credit Sara Stalnaker for teaching me how to play in tune. [Laughs] She’s really a fanatic when it comes to intonation.
It took me a while to realize I wasn’t just teaching students and playing in a string quartet. It took me a really long time to figure out what my impact was going to be within the organization. I was concerned because the student level was lower than I wanted. First of all, my teaching skills were not up to dealing with that many beginning students. That’s a whole pedagogy that I didn’t have in my possession and I had to learn how to teach beginners, which was really, really difficult. And so then the frustration of my beginners being stuck at certain places and not knowing how to get over that hump. Slowly I realized that certain kids weren’t going to go home and practice. I had to accept that. Their home life didn’t necessarily support that.
I was recalling my experience growing up with music. Of course, and this is the long-term learning curve, your experience is not going to be like your students’ experience. It’s a different time, it’s a different place, different situation. But still. I went to Third Street Music School in New York, which had been established for over a hundred years at that point. I was brought up with the sense that you had to be excellent and have this role model of excellence and that that’s a good thing, and I wanted these kids to feel that.
I remember writing a letter to Sebastian about excellence and trying to get at excellence, what does excellence mean for us here in the community, and how important I felt excellence was within this community in particular because this is a challenged community. I was feeling like I don’t want to be in an organization where we just do the minimum. These kids need to be challenged more because they have more against them. So they need to be challenged more in order to reach a high level of musicianship.
I didn’t want to fall into the category of just another community organization that halfway does the music part. We were sending our kids out to programs in the summer and I wanted them to shine and not feel like they were less than the other kids. I knew that it was a matter of the kids feeling they had ownership over their music-making. I’d come to that understanding, thankfully, through lots of discussion and understanding more the mission of the organization, this idea of leadership and self-confidence and ownership and self-leading. And I thought, you know what? Improvisation! They should be making their own music. Let’s figure this out. I’m going to call Alice Kay Kanack [Jessie’s former teacher at the Third Street Music School Settlement and creator of the Creative Ability Development Program]. It’s perfect. It’s a loosely formatted method. Anyone can participate in any level in the beginning exercises.
So I proposed the idea to Sebastian and we just went for it and started Music Lab, which at first was mostly a music-listening lab and then started to slowly introduce the concepts of CAD. We brought Alice to do workshops. So all of a sudden I was in charge of this thing. It was my contribution. I was guided by my vision for this program that I felt very passionate about. At one point, people said, “You’re the one who knows all those things” and then they were, “I watched you do it for a while and I get it.” It’s participatory. You’re sitting there and you’re learning and you’re doing and leading all at the same time. Then everyone started shifting and taking over classes and it was really very inspiring.
I think musicianship should be what we’re going for – all around understanding of what it’s like to perform, understand what it’s like to work with other musicians, to create your own music, to organize your own performances. All musicians should learn how to do that. Everyone should write music and perform and talk about music.
The thing about classical music is the pedestal. That just comes from people looking up to Western culture as the highest aspect of the human culture, right? Which is obviously not necessarily true. It’s extremely sophisticated and beautiful, but it’s not the only and the best. That’s what people are starting to realize now. Classical music is extremely rich and has a long history and it’s something that one should learn—I agree—like a language. Learn Russian. Learn Western classical music. It’s one among many styles and traditions that we should learn. We have an advantage being in the United States with all of these different cultures around us all the time. There are probably parents at CMW who know way more about the traditional or classical music of their culture and they could speak on it. We have to start looking at things a little bit differently so we can start to open up our ears and allow this melting pot that we’re in to really, really get going.
I was also composing at the time, and I thought, “Oh, I could maybe write a little composition for the kids, this could be a way for me to exercise my stuff.” When Obama was elected, I created music to commemorate it. Kirby [student] wrote a poem and did spoken word and we had students and resident musicians playing music I wrote and a voice part for the kids, too. It was called “Anthem.” That was the first time that I really felt like I was doing something meaningful with my music. Playing in quartets and doing concerts for the public is meaningful and fulfilling, but in terms of speaking about a real moment, trying to encapsulate this collective feeling into one piece of art…that was really the first time I’d ever tried doing that and I was so thankful for the opportunity. I was pretty intimidated but really excited.
Since then, I was commissioned two years ago to write a piece called “Banner,” which was to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner, and I used “Anthem” to help me. They share a lot of the same melodies. Had I not had that opportunity to write “Anthem,” I don’t know how this other piece would have turned out. It definitely was an important influence on being able to write a piece that’s about a moment or about something political. It was an incredible experience.
Working with Kirby, watching her passion come through…she was always a little ambivalent about cello.[Laughs] She knew it was good for her and she probably enjoyed the challenge on some level, but “Anthem” was something else. She really, really jumped onto the thing and found her voice and knew she wanted to say something. She just grew so much in that year. The two of us bonded. It was really special.
That’s what makes CMW so special, how well they align the importance of finding your voice within your craft so early on and being brave enough to teach that to kids. As adults, we think we have to keep kids in line all the time because they’re going to screw up. And they do, but if it’s guided right, the kind of mistakes they’re going to make are just regular mistakes. Allowing them to find their way is important. I was starting to see more how the two things could live together, this idea of being a vocal, active, contributing member and being expected to practice and perform the things that your teacher asked you to do. I started to change as I started to see that happening more. My faith in the model grew.
One of the things that I was challenged with coming into adulthood was learning how to ask for what I wanted, see things that I don’t agree with and speak up about it, gather people together if I need help. I didn’t learn that until I was at CMW. For a young person to have that sense of self and leadership is huge. I can’t wait to see how it impacts society as we go forward, especially with all this crap that we have to deal with now with this administration. There’s the sense that I can do something. I can get my people together and we’re going to figure this out, and we’re going to call our representative or we’re going to go down to their office. Maybe we’ll play them a tune and soften them up, you know, and then give them a piece of our mind.
In working with CMW, I realized how much you can align social concerns and common needs with music. Learning how that really fits together completely changed my idea of what music could–not should be like–but could be like, the potential that music has to speak to social issues. I also like the idea that music education is a platform for being a creative individual in the workforce. We need creative people in the world. We need people with brains in the world. CMW is sponsoring the development of very good humans. They’re ambassadors for music and for art, education, and for being a creative human being.
If I was to compose a piece for CMW, it would be an outdoor community oratorio where many people would participate at their own level. It would happen over the course of an afternoon or an entire day, and they could either watch or participate. There would be a rolling cast and it would fluctuate between set numbers and ambient transient music. At least one person from local government would be recruited to participate.
It’s a piece that’s happening on the street all day. There are cues and there are ways that even if you walk in and you’re confused about what’s going on, you can participate. [Laughs] But there’s always a core cast and they rotate as needed. It’s an oratorio, so they’re singing. There’s a lot of singing. Having been a part of CMW is probably the only reason I would ever come up with this crazy idea.
You never leave CMW. Come into CMW and you’re a part of the family forever. That is something that I value more than I can express. It changed my life in an extremely significant way and I can’t imagine what my life would be without it, honestly. The friendships are forever.
THE MUSIC OF JESSIE MONTGOMERY: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH JESSIE MONTGOMERY:
Catalyst Quartet - Jessie Montgomery - Strum
Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra: Jessie Montgomery - Banner
Jessie Montgomery: “Starburst”
A Greeting to the CSO Community from Jessie Montgomery
Together Through Music: "Strum" by Jessie Montgomery
Source Code by Jessie Montgomery
Jessie Montgomery - Strum
Voodoo Dolls- Jessie Montgomery
unscripted with Jessie Montgomery
NEC Philharmonia | Jessie Montgomery: Strum
Premiered November 2, 2020
New England Conservatory
On October 17, 2020, NEC alumna Lina González-Granados led the on-campus contingent of the NEC Philharmonia in this rendition of Jessie Montgomery's "Strum." Students offered this stirring performance live from Jordan Hall, to a virtual audience watching from home—and now for you, watching this video.
Watch full-length concerts from our current season: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Watch upcoming live streams and concert premieres: https://necmusic.edu/concerts
ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY New England Conservatory (NEC) is recognized internationally as a leader among music schools, educating and training musicians of all ages from around the world for over 150 years. With music students representing more than 40 countries, NEC cultivates a diverse, dynamic community for students, providing them with performance opportunities and high-caliber training by 225 internationally-esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. NEC pushes the boundaries of making and teaching music through college-level musical training in classical, jazz and Contemporary Improvisation. It offers unique interdisciplinary programs such as Entrepreneurial Musicianship and Community Performances & Partnerships that empower students to create their own musical opportunities. As part of NEC's mission to make lifelong music education available to everyone, the Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education delivers training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students and adults.
