Strum for string orchestra (2006, rev. 2012) 8'

“‘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…

“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…

“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…

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…

“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’.…

“The dance theme of the evening got off to a lively start with Strum, a folk music inspired work by New York composer Jessie Montgomery, its title coming from the…

“The evening began with Montgomery’s Strum, an all-strings affair, with plucked and strummed violins producing stunning layers of rhythmic and harmonic ostinati. Having grown up on New York’s Lower East…