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Composer and Violinist Jessie Montgomery Announces Spring 2025 Season Highlights

February 12, 2025 | By Katy Salomon

Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations
katy@primoartists.com | 646.801.9406

Composer and Violinist Jessie Montgomery
Announces Spring 2025 Season Highlights

World Premiere of CHEMILUMINESCENCE at the New York Philharmonic

Miller Theatre at Columbia University Composer Portrait, Performed by Montgomery,
Alicia Hall Moran, Dana Kelley, Pascal Le Boeuf, and The Everything Band

Third Coast Percussion Tours Newly-Commissioned Quartet and Performs Lou Harrison’s
Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra with Montgomery as Featured Soloist

Works Featured in History’s Persistent Voice with Julia Bullock, Part of Lincoln Center’s
American Songbook Series, and Tour of Karen Slack’s African Queens Alongside Additional Works from the Blacknificent 7 Composer Collective

Joins The Juilliard School's Arnhold Creative Associates as Part of an Artistic Residency
Includes a Composer Spotlight and Collaboration with Carnegie Hall

Recipient of The Sorel Organization’s Medallion Award

Appointed Lecturer of Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University

Residencies at Iowa City’s Hancher Auditorium, Virginia Arts Festival,
And The Mundi Project in Salt Lake City

“One of the most distinctive and communicative voices in the US, as a player and a creator.” – BBC

www.jessiemontgomery.com

New York, NY (February 10, 2025) – GRAMMY® Award-winning composer, violinist, and educator Jessie Montgomery, whose music has been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” by The Washington Post, announces a whirlwind Spring 2025 season of performances, premieres, and residencies, including a triumphant return to her hometown of New York City. Montgomery brings a deep spirit of collaboration to all of her activities, aiming to break down barriers and create a lasting sense of community that empowers performers and listeners to affect change.

Performance highlights include the world premiere of new work commissioned by the New York Philharmonic led by Jakub Hruša, a Miller Theatre Composer Portrait, a tour as performer and composer with Third Coast Percussion, and featured works in History’s Persistent Voice at Lincoln Center curated and performed by Julia Bullock, and the national tour of Karen Slack’s African Queens. Montgomery will also receive the last-ever Sorel Medallion Award, join Juilliard's Arnhold Creative Associates as part of a residency that includes several performances at Juilliard and Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, and serve as Lecturer of Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University. Residencies include Iowa City’s Hancher Auditorium, Virginia Arts Festival, and The Mundi Project in Salt Lake City among others. It has been announced that Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has commissioned a new Cello Concerto for Abel Selaocoe and the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center led by Music Director and Artistic Director Jonathon Heyward for summer 2026.

On Saturday, January 11, 2025, Jessie Montgomery appeared as both composer and featured soloist in Third Coast Percussion’s debut performance of the new program Strum, Strike, Bend at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music Winter Chamber Music Festival. In addition to the world premiere of Montgomery’s Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song (2024), referencing the increasingly important role of Black women in political and judicial roles, the Chicago Classical Review praised Montgomery’s performance as soloist in Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra as “richly malleable sound through an ear-grabbing panoply of layered rhythmic complexities, reserving her most expressive playing for the slow movement, an achingly beautiful soliloquy punctuated by sparse percussion... this was a gorgeous performance of a true American masterpiece.” Third Coast Percussion and Montgomery tour the program this season to Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa on Thursday, April 24, 2025; The Krannert Center at the University of Illinois on Saturday, April 26, 2025; the University of Notre Dame on Sunday, April 27, 2025; Oberlin College on Wednesday, April 30, 2025; the Meany Center at University of Washington on Saturday, May 3, 2025; and Stanford University on Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

On Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at Lincoln Center, Montgomery’s Five Freedom Songs (2021) for voice, percussion, and string orchestra will be featured in History’s Persistent Voice, a multimedia anthology envisioned by curator and GRAMMY® Award-winning soprano Julia Bullock, and presented as part of the American Songbook series. The program focuses on the influence of pre-Emancipation voices across generations, emphasizing that era’s poetic musical traditions while centering the multifaceted identities of the Black American experience, realized through art. A quintet of newly commissioned compositions crafted by an esteemed roster of American women of color includes Montgomery alongside Tania León, Allison Loggins-Hull, Carolyn Yarnell, and Pamela Z. The program will also appear at Yale University’s Schwarzman Center on February 7 and 8th, 2025 and on tour around Maryland with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jonathon Heyward from February 27 to March 1. The project features conductor Christian Reif, visual artist Hana S. Kim, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

In February 2025, Montgomery begins her tenure as a Juilliard Arnhold Creative Associate, with activities to include The New Series: Composer Spotlight on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, which features Juilliard music students performing a survey of chamber pieces composed by Montgomery from 2008-2024; a program of solo and chamber music works composed by Montgomery and fellow Juilliard Arnhold Creative Associates Matthew Aucoin and Caroline Shaw as part of Juilliard at Zankel Hall presented with Carnegie Hall on Monday, March 24, 2025. Returning to her alma mater for this artistic residency, Montgomery will also lead a series of collaborative workshops, coachings, public discussions, and other special projects as part of her mentorship of composing and chamber music students from the Music and Preparatory Divisions.

Montgomery’s The Song of Nzingha (2024) will also be featured in Karen Slack’s nationwide tour of her new program African Queens on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at The Kennedy Center presented by Washington Performing Arts and Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at The 92nd Street Y, New York, as well as a July 2025 appearance at Tanglewood. An evening-length vocal recital of new art songs, this program celebrates the history and legacy of seven African queens, revered as rulers but not widely heralded in the Western world. The tour features eight new songs written for Slack by the composer collective known as the Blacknificent 7, including Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson in addition to Montgomery, with special guest Will Liverman. In August 2024, Slack performed the world premiere of African Queens at fellow co-commissioner Ravinia Festival, followed by performances at co-commissioners Aspen Music Festival and Friends of Chamber Music Denver, as well as Music Academy of the West.

On Thursday, April 3, 2025, Montgomery performs alongside a superstar ensemble of mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran, violist Dana Kelly, pianist Pascal Le Boeuf, and The Everything Band – a collective of artists of varying styles creating music by experimentation, improvisation, and open-ended form – for her own Composer Portraits at Miller Theatre at Columbia University. The evening features the world premiere of Montgomery’s Everything, All at Once (2025), a Miller Theatre Commission, as well as her Lunar Songs (2019); Loisaida, My Love (2016); Break Away (2013), and Source Code (2013) for string quartet. The Everything Band is comprised of Jannina Norpoth, violin; Gabriel Cabezas, cello; Eleonore Oppenheim, bass; Allison Loggins-Hull, flute; Lynn Ligammari, saxophone; Grey McMurray, guitar; Jerome Jennings, drums.

Montgomery will receive the Sorel Organization’s Medallion Award at the National Arts Club’s Sorel Concert of Music and Conversation, celebrating her arrival as a major talent shaping American classical music today in its rich, multi-cultural diversity. In a musical event on Wednesday, April 8, 2025, Montgomery will discuss her career journey and pay tribute to the Third Street Music School, the longest-running community music school in the United States where she began her studies as a child. Third Street is celebrating its 130th anniversary as the longest-running community music school in the U.S. Montgomery will share her program and a portion of her award with her alma mater.

Montgomery’s new work titled CHEMILUMINESCENCE – a New York Philharmonic co-commission as part of Project 19 – will have its world premiere during performances conducted by Jakub Hruša from Thursday, April 9, 2025 to Saturday, April 11, 2025 in the Wu Tsai Theater in David Geffen Hall. Commissioned alongside the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and The Sphinx Organization, CHEMILUMINESCENCE explores sonic interpretations of light, finding a corollary between music and the natural world. Also on the program is Stravinsky’s ?Violin Concerto, which comes to life in the hands of violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.

Additional appearances during the 2025 season for Montgomery include a three-part composer residency in Iowa City at Hancher Auditorium, the VA Arts Festival Residency, the Mundi Project Residency at Salt Lake City, and attendance at the Detroit Symphony Classical Roots Gala.

Performances of Montgomery’s works take place all over the world this spring, with highlights to include the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Sphinx Virtuosi with Awadagin Pratt at Chicago’s Symphony Center (in which Montgomery will serve as Concertmaster in her GRAMMY® Award-winning concerto, Rounds), and the Miami Ballet, among many others. Her co-arrangement of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha with Jannina Norpoth is being staged by Toronto-based performance company Volcano at the Harris Theater in Chicago in May 2025.

Jessie Montgomery Spring 2025 Highlights
Saturday, January 11, 2025 at 7:30pm
Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery – Strum, Strike, Bend
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall | Evanston, IL
Link: www.music.northwestern.edu/events/third-coast-percussion-jessie-montgomery?eventdate=1736645400

Third Coast Percussion
Jessie Montgomery, composer and violinist

Program:
Tirgan Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion
Jlin / Philip Glass – Please Be Still
Jessie Montgomery – Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song [World Premiere]
Lou Harrison – Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra
Jessie Montgomery, violin

Friday, February 7, 2025 at 7:30pm
Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 7:30pm
Julia Bullock’s History’s Persistent Voice
Yale University’s Schwarzman Center | New Haven, CT
Link: https://schwarzman.yale.edu/events/julia-bullock-historys-persistent-voice

Julia Bullock, curator and singer
Christian Reif, conductor
Hana S. Kim, visual artist and projection designer
New Haven Symphony Orchestra
ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann & Sami Pyne, producer

Program:
Jessie Montgomery – Five Freedom Songs
Cassie Kinoshi – blue skies, bluer seas [World Premiere]
Allison Loggins-Hull – Mama’s Little Precious Thing
Carolyn Yarnell – I Come Up The Hard Way
Carolyn Yarnell – this world ain’t my home
Pamela Z – Quilt
Tania Léon – Green Pastures

Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 7:30pm
Lincoln Center Presents Julia Bullock’s History’s Persistent Voice
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center | New York, NY
Link: www.lincolncenter.org/series/american-songbook/historys-persistent-voice-365

Julia Bullock, curator and singer
Christian Reif, conductor
Hana S. Kim, visual artist and projection designer
New Haven Symphony Orchestra
ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann & Sami Pyne, producer

Program:
Jessie Montgomery – Five Freedom Songs
Cassie Kinoshi – blue skies, bluer seas [NYC Premiere]
Allison Loggins-Hull – Mama’s Little Precious Thing
Carolyn Yarnell – I Come Up The Hard Way
Carolyn Yarnell – this world ain’t my home
Pamela Z – Quilt
Tania Léon – Green Pastures

Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 7:30pm
The New Series: Composer Spotlight
The Juilliard School | New York, NY
Link: www.juilliard.edu/event/170861/new-series-composer-spotlight-jessie-montgomery

Program:
Jessie Montgomery – Voodoo Dolls for string quartet (2008)
Jessie Montgomery – Rhapsody No. 1 for solo viola (2021)
Jessie Montgomery – Peace for clarinet and piano (2020)
Jessie Montgomery – In Color for tuba and string quartet (2014)
Jessie Montgomery – Musings for two violins (2023)
Jessie Montgomery – Concerto Grosso for oboe, harp, solo violin, and string quintet (2024)

Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 8:00pm
Friday, February 28, 2025 at 8:00pm
Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 8:00pm
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with Jonathon Heyward
Music Center at Strathmore | Baltimore, MD
Link: www.my.bsomusic.org/18932/18981

Jonathon Heyward, conductor
Julia Bullock, soprano

Program:
Dvorák – Carnival Overture
Jessie Montgomery – Five Freedom Songs
Mahler – Symphony No. 4

Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 7:30pm
African Queens featuring Jessie Montgomery’s The Song of Nzingha
The Kennedy Center Terrace Theater | Washington, DC
Link: www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/classical-music/2024-2025/wpa-karen-slack-african-queens/

Karen Slack, soprano
Kevin Miller, piano

Program:
Dave Ragland – Precatio
Carlos Simon – Behold, The Queen
Dave Ragland – The Queen of Sheba
Jessie Montgomery – The Song of Nzingha
Fred Onovwerosuoke – Luwah
Shawn Okpebholo – A Letter From Queen Ufua
Fred Onovwerosuoke – Duniya (Mystic Universe)
Jasmine Barnes – I Am Not Your God
Will Liverman – A Prayer
Joel Thompson – Queen Nanny’s Lullabye
Damien Geter – Amanirenas

Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 7:30pm (In Person and Livestream Online)
African Queens featuring Jessie Montgomery’s The Song of Nzingha
The 92nd Street Y | New York, NY
Link: www.92ny.org/event/karen-slack

Karen Slack, soprano
Kevin Miller, piano

Monday, March 24, 2025 at 7:30pm
Juilliard at Zankel Hall
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2025/03/24/Juilliard-at-Zankel-Hall-0730PM

Musicians from The Juilliard School

Program:
Jessie Montgomery – Concerto Grosso
Matthew Aucoin – The tracks have vanished Mvmt. 1 (arr. for two pianos) [World Premiere]
Matthew Aucoin – This Earth (arr. for voice and large ensemble) [World Premiere]
Caroline Shaw – Two Little Flowers
Caroline Shaw – New Work [World Premiere]

Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 7:30pm
Composer Portraits featuring Jessie Montgomery
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/jessie-montgomery

Alicia Hall Moran, mezzo-soprano
Jessie Montgomery, violin
Dana Kelley, viola
Pascal Le Boeuf, piano
The Everything Band

Program:
Jessie Montgomery – Everything, All at Once [World Premiere, Miller Theatre Commission]
Jessie Montgomery – Lunar Songs
Jessie Montgomery – Loisaida, My Love
Jessie Montgomery – Break Away
Jessie Montgomery – Source Code for string quartet

Wednesday, April 8, 2025
National Arts Club’s Sorel Concert of Music and Conversation: Recipient Jessie Montgomery
The National Arts Club | New York NY
www.nacnyc.org

Program:
Jessie Montgomery Receives the Sorel Medallion Award

Wednesday, April 9, 2025 at 7:30pm
Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 7:30pm
Friday, April 11, 2025 at 11:00am
New York Philharmonic Presents Brahms, Stravinsky & Jessie Montgomery
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/2425/brahms-stravinsky/

Jakub Hruša, conductor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin

Program:
Jessie Montgomery – CHEMILUMINESCENCE [World Premiere]
Igor Stravinsky – Violin Concerto
Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 1

Thursday, April 24, 2025 at 7:30pm
Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery - Strum, Strike, Bend
Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa | Iowa City, IA
Link: www.hancher.uiowa.edu/2024-25/third-coast-percussion

Program:
Jessie Montgomery – Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song
Lou Harrison – Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra
Jessie Montgomery, violin
Tirgan Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion
Jlin / Philip Glass – Please Be Still

Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 7:30pm
Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery – Strum, Strike, Bend
The Krannert Center at the University of Illinois | Urbana, IL
Link: www.krannertcenter.com/events/jessie-montgomery-and-third-coast-percussion

Third Coast Percussion
Jessie Montgomery, composer and violinist

Program:
Tirgan Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion
Jlin / Philip Glass – Please Be Still
Jessie Montgomery – Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song
Lou Harrison – Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra
Jessie Montgomery, violin

Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 4:00pm
Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery – Strum Strike, Bend
University of Notre Dame Debartolo Center | Notre Dame, IN
Link: www.performingarts.nd.edu/presenting-series/

Third Coast Percussion
Jessie Montgomery, composer and violinist

Wednesday, April 30, 2025 at 7:30pm
Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery – Strum Strike, Bend
Oberlin College | Oberlin, OH
Link: www.oberlin.edu/events/third-coast-percussion-and-jessie-montgomery

Third Coast Percussion
Jessie Montgomery, composer and violinist

Saturday, May 3, 2025 at 7:30pm
Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery – Strum Strike, Bend
Meany Hall - Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater | Seattle, WA
Link: www.meanycenter.org/tickets/2025-05/production/third-coast-percussion-and-jessie-montgomery

Third Coast Percussion
Jessie Montgomery, composer and violinist

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 7:30pm
Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery – Strum Strike, Bend
Stanford University | Stanford, CA
Link: www.events.stanford.edu/event/third-coast-percussion-with-jessie-montgomery

Third Coast Percussion
Jessie Montgomery, composer and violinist

About Jessie Montgomery
Jessie Montgomery is a GRAMMY® Award-winning composer, violinist, and educator whose work interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profound works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful, and exploding with life,” (The Washington Post) and are performed regularly by leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists around the world. In June 2024, Montgomery concluded a three-year appointment as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence.

Montgomery’s music contains a breadth of musical depictions of the human experience—from statements on social justice themes, to the Black diasporic experience and its foundation in American music, to wistful adorations and playful spontaneity—reflective of her deeply rooted experience as a classical violinist and child of the radical New York City cultural scene of the 1980s and 90s. From choral-symphonic works such as I Have Something To Say (2019), to her more intimate solo instrumental works, she presents a fresh perspective on the contemporary concert music experience. In response to Montgomery’s GRAMMY®-winning work, Rounds (2021), San Francisco’s NPR station KQED stated: “this is what classical music needs in 2024.”

A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst Quartet, Montgomery is a frequent and highly engaged collaborator with performing musicians, composers, choreographers, playwrights, poets, and visual artists alike. Recent collaborations include a recording and touring project with Third Coast Percussion, including a newly-commissioned percussion quartet and an appearance with Montgomery as featured soloist in Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra; a new work co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and the Sphinx Organization; and an ongoing collaboration with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, which has led to several of her concert works being choreographed with major dance companies across the US, including the Nashville Ballet and the Miami Ballet. Montgomery’s interest in improvisation and collective music-making has led to the development of The Everything Band, which comprises eight composer-performers of varied stylistic backgrounds, including her long-time collaborator, bassist Eleonore Oppenheim, with whom she created the genre-bending improv duo, big dog little dog. Montgomery is also a founding member of the Blacknificent 7, a composer collective focused on presenting and supporting the works of Black composers through concert curation, scholarship, and mentorship.

At the heart of Montgomery’s work is a deep sense of community enrichment and a desire to create opportunities for young artists. During her tenure at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she launched the Young Composers Initiative, which supports high school-aged youth in creating and presenting their works, including regular tutorials, reading sessions, and public performances. Her curatorial work engages a diverse community of concertgoers and aims to highlight the works of underrepresented composers in an effort to broaden audience experiences in classical music spaces.

Montgomery’s growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works, as well as an opera in development with Lincoln Center Theater and The Metropolitan Opera, which explores family histories and the impact of her mother, playwright, and actress Robbie McCauley, on the American historical narrative. Montgomery’s music has been heard on global stages across the US, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Asia, from the Hong Kong Cultural Center to the BBC Proms, Elbphilharmonie, Hollywood Bowl, and Carnegie Hall. Recent highlights include The Song of Nzingha (2024), part of soprano Karen Slack’s evening-length recital African Queens alongside other composers from the Blacknificent 7; Procession (2024), a percussion concerto written for Cynthia Yeh, Principal Percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Space (2023), commissioned and performed by violinist Joshua Bell as part of his Elements project; Five Freedom Songs (2021), a song cycle conceived with and written for soprano Julia Bullock for the Sun Valley, Grand Teton, and Virginia Arts Music Festivals and San Francisco, Kansas City, Boston, and New Haven Symphony Orchestras; and I was waiting for the echo of a better day, a site-specific collaboration with Bard SummerScape and Pam Tanowitz Dance (2021).

Montgomery has been recognized with many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and Musical America's 2023 Composer of the Year. Since 1999, she has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization in a variety of roles, including Composer-in-Residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, its professional touring ensemble. Montgomery holds degrees from The Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a doctoral candidate in music composition at Princeton University. She serves on the Composition and Music Technology faculty at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.

For more information and full performance calendar, visit www.jessiemontgomery.com

*Photo Credit: Jiyang Chen

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