The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary music program MusicNOW will be ending its season this Monday evening with In Context, a program that includes new works by the CSO Mead Composer-In-Residence Jessie Montgomery and 16 year-old Chicago composer Angel Alday. Highlighting the concert is Montgomery pairing up with violin virtuoso Rachel Barton Pine to give the world premier of Musings, a work for two violins. Michael Mulcahy will be conducting musicians from the CSO.
Montgomery came out of Sphinx, a national organization for diversity in the arts. As a board member of Sphinx for over 20 years, Pine observed the emergence of Montgomery, first as member of a string octet that won a Sphinx award, and then as faculty member in the Sphinx summer academy and a leader of the Sphinx Virtuosi ensemble.
In a wide-ranging interview, Pine complimented Montgomery for not allowing herself to be placed in what Pine characterized as “lanes” in classical music, where performers do not compose music and composers do not perform. Pine admires Montgomery for breaking down those lanes and doing both. Pine also expressed pleasure over premiering Musings, a new contribution to the rather thin repertoire of violin duo.
In writing Musings for Two Violins, which was commissioned by MusicNOW, Montgomery drew inspiration from Béla Bartók’s 44 Violin Duets. Musings’ several short movements also hearken to other composer influences, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Paul Hindemith, Antonio Vivaldi, and Darius Milhaud.
Monday’s concert also will celebrate this inaugural year of the CSO’s Young Composers Initiative, which empowers youth from across the Chicago region to create new pieces of chamber music with leadership from Montgomery. One product of that initiative is a new Wind Quintet by 16-year-old Chicago composer Angel Alday, which will also be receiving a world premiere on Monday night.
In a pre-concert performance in the Grainger Ballroom, musicians from the Chicago Civic Orchestra will play several other new works that emerged from the Young Composers Initiative. These include chamber music by 17-year-olds Lincoln Gibbs and Brandon Harper, 14-year-old Malik Muhammad, and 18-year-old Sofia Ruiz Cordero.
Jessie Montgomery’s early work Play is also on Monday’s program, as are works by Richard Einhorn, Julia Perry, and Walter Piston. It will also include Leonard Bernstein’s final composition, Dance Suite, which is scored for brass quintet.
MusicNOW In Context, Monday, April 24, 7:00 pm at Symphony Center. For more information and tickets, click here.