“Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds, a mini-piano concerto, is built on a traditional foundation, allowing a stormy cadenza and flourishes of high Romanticism.” — Tom Huizenga for NPR
The opening of the 2023/24 Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW season illuminates works by a dynamic collective of Black composers, the Blacknificent 7.
Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds is performed by pianist Awadagin Pratt and A Far Cry. Click Read More to view the full list of GRAMMY nominations:
The November 9 concert event will mark the culmination of a three-year guest residency partnership.
Montgomery and Tower discuss their cross-generational perspectives on the evolving musical scene, the growing calls for equity and inclusion in music, and what it means to be called “women composers.”
Hymn for Everyone, Divided, and Rounds submitted for Best Contemporary Composition
DMR describes Snapshots as: “Glowing washes and surges of sound … hypnotic chimings and quasi-chorales … ruminative … A razzle-dazzle performance.”
“It’s truly a remarkable experience for students to have the opportunity to hear directly from the composer as they work on a piece, preparing it for performance” – Carolyn Huebl, professor of violin.
Pratt’s latest album is a collection of six newly-commissioned works written for piano, the Grammy-winning vocal band Roomful of Teeth, and string orchestra A Far Cry. Now available on all platforms.
Montgomery says, “It has been great to have the time and space to work on these big projects surrounded by the beauty of the countryside, without the usual distractions that I face in the city.”