“Last month, Pilsen-based composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery made history as the first Black composer awarded the Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, winning for her work Rounds. The recognition feels like an appropriately gilded capstone to her fruitful tenure as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead composer-in-residence, a position she’s held since July 2021. This spring, Montgomery ends her CSO stint with a bang—several, in fact. On May 3, Third Coast Percussion will unveil her new work for percussion quartet, Study No. 1, in a program that also spotlights Montgomery as a violinist. May 30 through June 1, the CSO’s fearless principal percussionist, Cynthia Yeh, will premiere Montgomery’s new concerto, Procession, with the orchestra.

Before all that, Civitas Ensemble will salute Montgomery in a program inspired by friendship. (The group’s core members are pianist Winston Choi and two CSO string players, violinist Yuan-Qing Yu and cellist Ken Olsen.) The selections include Montgomery’s restively inventive Duo for Violin and Cello (2015), which she wrote for herself and cellist Adrienne Taylor. Though the work is by now a vintage piece in her catalog, its immediacy and heart-on-sleeve ardor hold up against any of her recent chamber opuses.”