Jessie Montgomery, violin; David Skidmore, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, Sean Connors, and She-e Wu, percussion

Grammy Award-winning composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery joins the Grammy Award-winning Chicago-based quartet Third Coast Percussion for their first performance of 2025 and the first performance of their new program “Strum, Strike, Bend.”

Acclaimed for her compositions that are “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (Washington Post), Jessie Montgomery is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Leonard Bernstein Award and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her growing body of work is performed by leading musicians and ensembles worldwide. She was appointed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence in 2021.

Praised for their “rare power” (Washington Post) and “inspirational sense of fun and curiosity” (Minnesota Star-Tribune), Third Coast Percussion—celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025—has performed throughout the US and across four continents. The ensemble has commissioned and premiered new works by Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, Jlin, Danny Elfman, Clarice Assad, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Glenn Kotche, and David T. Little, among many others.

Bienen Associate Professor of Percussion She-e Wu joins Third Coast Percussion for the performance of Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra.

Jessie Montgomery, Study No. 1 (Percussion Quartet)
Lou Harrison, Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra