April 24 – May 7: Third Coast Percussion Tours 'Strum, Strike, Bend' with Composer & Violinist Jessie Montgomery

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

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Third Coast Percussion Continues National Tour 
with Renowned Composer & Violinist Jessie Montgomery

Strum, Strike, Bend Program Features Montgomery as Composer of a New Percussion Quartet and Violin Soloist on Lou Harrison’s Concerto

Tour Dates:
April 24, 2025: Hancher Auditorium, University of Iowa | Iowa City, IA
April 26, 2025: Krannert Center, University of Illinois | Champaign, IL
April 27, 2025: University of Notre Dame | Notre Dame, IN
April 30, 2025: Oberlin College | Oberlin, OH
May 3, 2025: Meany Center, University of Washington | Seattle, WA
May 7, 2025: Stanford Live | Stanford, CA

“Virtuosity and deft, precisely timed wit” – The Washington Post

“Jessie Montgomery is… one of the most distinctive and communicative voices in the US, 
as a player and a creator.” – The BBC 

www.thirdcoastpercussion.com | www.jessiemontgomery.com

Chicago, IL (March 20, 2025) – Third Coast Percussion (TCP) will be joined by fellow GRAMMY® Award winner Jessie Montgomery as both a featured composer and violinist on their upcoming Strum, Strike, Bend tour including Montgomery’s new work for percussion quartet, Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song. The program also spotlights Montgomery as violin soloist on Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra. After an initial performance at the Northwestern University Winter Chamber Music Festival in January, featuring the Chicago-area premiere of Montgomery’s work, TCP and Montgomery will tour the program 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.

Following the program’s premiere at Northwestern University, Chicago Classical Review applauded Montgomery for the “tremendous amount of kinetic energy” infused into Lady Justice / Black Justice, the Song, later praising her performance on Lou Harrison’s work for its “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.”

The Strum, Strike, Bend tour represents one of many ambitious projects timed for Third Coast Percussion’s 20th anniversary season. The celebration continues with the release of TCP’s 20th anniversary album, Standard Stoppages, on April 11, 2025 and Rhythm Fest, a one-day festival in Chicago on June 28, 2025. Standard Stoppages, to be released on Chicago's own Cedille Records, will be a celebration of TCP’s past through the creation of new work, featuring pieces composed for the ensemble by the late Zakir Hussain, as well as Jessie Montgomery, Jlin, Tigran Hamasyan, and Musekiwa Chingodza.

Strum, Strike, Bend Tour Dates

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

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

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/

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

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

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

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

About Third Coast Percussion
With nearly two decades of exciting and unexpected performances to its name, Chicago-based percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion (TCP) is the first percussion ensemble to win a GRAMMY® Award in the classical genre. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025, Third Coast recasts the classical musical experience with a brilliantly varied sonic palette, crafting music to “push percussion in new directions, blurring musical boundaries and beguiling new listeners” (NPR). In its latest of seven total GRAMMY® nominations, TCP’s 2023 album Between Breaths was nominated under Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in the 2024 GRAMMY® Awards.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary season in 2024-2025, the ensemble embarks on its most ambitious projects yet, collaborating with leading musicians, choreographers and composers. The season includes two collaborative national tours: In a program with tabla player Salar Nader, featuring dates at Carnegie Hall and four other sites, the artists premiere a new work commissioned by TCP from the late Zakir Hussain (Nader's mentor) before the artist's passing in December 2024. The ensemble also tours with Twyla Tharp Dance in a newly created piece by the famed choreographer set to Philip Glass's iconic score Aguas da Amazonia. Other highlights include TCP performances of their acclaimed Metamorphosis program; and a national tour with composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery featuring a new work commissioned by Third Coast. TCP has also commissioned new works from composers Tigran Hamasyan and Jlin.

Passionate about connecting with its audience, Third Coast has been praised for “an inspirational sense of fun and curiosity” (Minnesota Star-Tribune). The ensemble has toured widely across the U.S. and four continents. Its four members are also accomplished teachers who have developed a wealth of K-12 workshops and family programming, plus educational partnerships benefiting thousands of Chicago students.

Third Coast has produced exciting new art through unlikely collaborations with engineers at the University of Notre Dame, architects at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, dancers at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and musicians of all genres. The quartet has served as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (2013-2018) and Denison University (current).

TCP has commissioned and premiered new works in a unique, highly collaborative process from Zakir Hussain, Jessie Montgomery, Philip Glass, Clarice Assad, Danny Elfman, Jlin, Tigran Hamasyan, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Missy Mazzoli, Ivan Trevino, Tyondai Braxton and leading early career composers through their annual Currents Creative Partnership. Jlin’s Perspective, a TCP commission, was a 2023 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Besides putting its stamp on works by John Cage and Steve Reich, the quartet has created first recordings of commissioned works by Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, Danny Elfman, Jlin, Tyondai Braxton, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, and more – in addition to original Third Coast compositions. The ensemble won a GRAMMY® (Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance) for their recording of Steve Reich’s works for percussion. They have received five additional GRAMMY® nominations as performers, plus a 2021 nomination as composers.

With strong ties throughout Chicago, Third Coast has collaborated with such institutions as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Uniting Voices Chicago choir, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Humanities Festival, Adler Planetarium, the University of Chicago and numerous Chicago-based composers.

The four members of Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore) met while studying percussion at Northwestern University and formed the ensemble in 2005. Members of Third Coast also hold degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music.

Follow Third Coast on Instagram (@ThirdCoastPercussion), YouTube (@thirdcoastpercussion), TikTok (@thirdcoastpercussion), X (@ThirdCoastPerc), Facebook (@Third Coast Percussion), and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/third-coast-percussion).

*Third Coast Percussion is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

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 courtesy of Third Coast Percussion

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