“‘You could say that it is a debut performance of the Blacknificent 7 as a group,’ said Jessie Montgomery of New York, one of its most prominent members. She curated the program as part of her duties as the CSO’s Mead Composer-in-Residence.

“You could say that it is a debut performance of the Blacknificent 7 as a group,” said Jessie Montgomery of New York, one of its most prominent members. She curated the program as part of her duties as the CSO’s Mead Composer-in-Residence.

Five of the Blacknificent composers – Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Shawn E. Okpebholo, Dave Ragland and Joel Thompson – will have works on the program, including the world premiere of a MusicNOW commission by the Dallas-based Barnes. Donald Lee III, a member of the Ryan Opera Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s artist-development program, will conduct.

All the music is very different, said Montgomery, Musical America’s 2023 composer of the year, but she has tried to find what she called a “programmatic flow” that will help loop the disparate stylistic threads together.

‘I feel this program has a really nice balance of composers whose music you may have heard before and those you have not, but all are tied together in a special way,’ she said.”