Jessie Montgomery (born 1981)
Jessie Montgomery is one of today’s most popular young composers. She was born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan to parents involved with the arts and activism, and she credits that background for fostering “a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.”
Jessie Montgomery began studying violin at the Third Street Music School Settlement on 11th Street in the East Village, earned a bachelor’s degree in violin from Julliard and a master’s degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia from NYU. She is currently a Graduate Fellow in Composition at Princeton, and Professor of violin and composition at The New School.
Jessie Montgomery has written music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choruses, solo violin and viola, and voice, including settings of spirituals. Her music often touches upon social and political concerns. Her orchestral composition Banner was written on the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner but also incorporates the theme from “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” commonly referred to as the Black National Anthem.
This is a performance of her string quartet Strum (2006, rev. 2012) by students at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance:
She has written:
Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinati that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.
Jessie Montgomery composed her Rhapsody No.1 for solo violin in 2014 and later transcribed it for viola. Here’s the original version:
The composer writes writes:
Rhapsody No. 1 is the first solo piece I wrote for myself. It draws on inspiration from the Eugène Ysaÿe solo works and is intended to serve as both an étude and a stand-alone work. This piece is intended to be part of a set of 6 solo works, each of which will be inspired by an historical composer.