“Contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery was represented by her Rhapsody No. 1 for solo violin, which has an opening full of double-stops, builds to a crescendo of arpeggios, and ends pensively.”
“‘Getting to do all those things in one festival is really fulfilling,’ said Montgomery, who is this year’s SummerFest composer-in-residence. She has earned much praise for her genre-blurring works, socially…
“A quintet from the orchestra will also perform four works on the Vineyard. The first is “Duo for Violin & Cello” by Jessie Montgomery, a Grammy-awardwinning African American composer from…
“The Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert opened with Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, a short piece that the composer – a violinist herself – orchestrated for a small string orchestra after envisioning it as…
“Participants in the 2026 IVCI will be required perform a new work by Grammy Award-winning composer, violinist and educator Jessie Montgomery. A graduate of The Juilliard School and New York…
“The CSO’s performance of ‘Strum,’ for string orchestra, was just as clean and confident — familiar fare for the ensemble, having played it before and worked with Montgomery for three…
“Chicago quartet Third Coast Percussion continue to celebrate their 20th year with this kaleidoscopic all-day event at Epiphany Center for the Arts. Rhythm Fest consists of 17 sets in four…
How do we know a work of art will stand the test of time? There’s no simple rule, but when a piece written in reaction to specific events still resonates…
“Not a note feels wasted in Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, a jaunty, seven-minute curtain-raiser offered in versions for string quartet and string orchestra. The musical economy is no accident: ‘Strum is the…
“A graceful, gossamer-like opening leads into a series of radiant sounds – flashing, flickering, shimmering – gradually building up tension and then finally settling back into silence… sumptuous colors”
” Jessie Montgomery’s Study No 1 erupts cautiously, with tom tom rolls moving in slow gradations and instruments coming in and out of focus before individual ricochets and beating patterns are revealed.…
“sumptuous… This nine-minute piece wears its neo-Romantic heart on its sleeve from the first strains, reminiscent of Strauss’s ‘Metamorphosen,’ that proceed in tender, halting motion. Ardent melodies in the violas,…
“a skillful, communicative work… It was bright from the very start… all along, the music had something deeply appealing to say that was integral to the warm and sophisticated rhetoric.”
“Source Code for string quartet opened the program with the composer on violin joining violinist Monica Davis, violist Dana Kelley, and cellist Gabriel Cabezas. The quartet fostered the slippery movement…
“I’m thrilled that Jessie Montgomery is our 2025 Performance Today Classical Woman of the Year,” said Fred Child, host and senior editor of the program. “She is a multidimensional musical artist,…
“For those unfamiliar with American composer, Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981), her two short pieces were an exciting introduction to a composer of musical ingenuity whose work is also immediately ‘accessible’.…
“Jessie Montgomery’s ‘Strum,’ a ten-minute-long work that deserves its status as a 21st-century classic in its various incarnations for string quartet and larger string ensembles, dates from 2008 when the…
“The point is that the act of creating live music brings people together. ‘There’s the attraction of the music and the attraction of the people who are making the music,…
“Throughout the concert, Montgomery’s generous demeanor went a long way in inviting the audience to be comfortable in taking in the experience of contemporary music, without worrying about feeling intimidated…
“Pratt said of the concerto, ‘it’s kind of addictive and intoxicating. People get into a groove with the material as it comes back, and you‘ve got this really beautiful middle…
