“Award winning composer Jessie Montgomery talks about her new piece “Snapshots” being performed by the DSO at Meyerson Symphony Orchestra October 14 & 15″
“Jessie Montgomery’s ebullient music, alive with vernacular influences, has made her one of the highest visibility American composers these days. Snapshots, a Dallas Symphony commission, will be premiered in a program…
“Even for composers known for their way with a lyrical line and satisfying harmonies, the fit between the movements was remarkable. Each was imaginative and distinctive while also flowing naturally…
“Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell will perform at the U.S. premiere of his newly commissioned suite, The Elements, for violin and orchestra, with the New York Philharmonic this weekend. The…
“The Virtuosi, Sphinx’s premier touring group, is a chamber string orchestra made up of young Black and Latino musicians. This hourlong program features spirited (if sometimes slightly hard-edged) playing on…
“Jessie Montgomery and Joan Tower have distinct artistic profiles, but the two share much in common as two of today’s most compelling composers and perceptive observers of the orchestra field.…
“The Bach made a felicitous pairing with Jessie Montgomery’s “Rounds,” a work scored for similar forces and premiered earlier this year. In her comments from the stage, Montgomery, who is…
“Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst (2012) – all the above strings players plus violinists Melissa White, Nathan Amaral and Graham Mitchell, violist Rosalind Ventris and bassist Graham Mitchell – sounded as per…
“Divided (2020) is Jessie Montgomery’s response to the sense of helplessness felt in ‘a world that seems to be in constant crisis’. Cast as a compact cello concerto – the…
“The music is new, but it’s rooted in classical traditions, and it’s fascinating to hear compositional voices that routinely push forward, earnestly engaging in traditional approaches. On Jessie Montgomery’s stirring…
“The first music on this new disc is by Jessie Montgomery, the Mead Composer-in-residence at the CSO. She has earned a reputation as a composer of melodic, accessible music infused…
“Pratt handed each of his composers some lines from Eliot’s poem as a jumping-off point. Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds, which opens the album, already has a life of its own — Pratt…
“Look to the opening work on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s recent album “Contemporary American Composers,” Jessie Montgomery’s ‘Hymn for Everyone.’ That track is plenty inviting in its regular stereo mix;…
“Written in 2021 for viola and orchestra and featuring violist Masumi Per Rostad, Montgomery’s piece was the concert’s highlight, heard in its local premiere. She is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s…
“Divided, by Jessie Montgomery, is the other Sphinx commission for the album, with Tommy Mesa providing a stirring performance of the solo cello part. Montgomery draws the main motive out of the…
Songs of Our Times includes two of Sphinx Virtuosi’s commissions. Composer Jessie Montgomery describes Divided as a response to “the sense of helplessness that people seem to feel amidst a…
“Rising-star composer Montgomery, who was involved in last year’s 75th anniversary Music Academy festival and who is currently the Mead composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony, managed the feat of supplying…
“The commission was followed by Jessie Montgomery’s “Five Freedom Songs,” an orchestral song cycle built on the stirring texts of five traditional Black spirituals, each of them in different ways…
“For the Sunday afternoon audience, the widely admired composer and educator Jessie Montgomery previewed her 2021 “Freedom Songs,” a collection of lesser-known traditional Black spirituals adapted for voice, percussion and…
“Montgomery’s ‘Banner,’ from 2014, ingeniously casts a string quartet as the individual “soloist” both vigorously supported by and at times vigorously challenged by the collective in the form of the…
