Jessie Montgomery: A curated concert with Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players

“Turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life.”
– Washington Post

Recently appointed Virginia Arts Festival Composer-In-Residence, Jessie Montgomery is recognized as a major force in contemporary classical music. Selected as Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year, she has created works that The New York Times says are changing the American canon. Virginia Arts Festival patrons will recall Montgomery’s moving score for the Festival-commissioned ballet Passage by Dance Theatre of Harlem and her Five Freedom Songs created with Julia Bullock; since then, Montgomery has written many more works that are being performed by orchestras and ensembles across the U.S. This composer got her start as a chamber musician, and began composing chamber music when she was just 11 years old. In this extraordinary performance, hear a chamber concert curated by a composer who is having a profound impact on music, and whose own music reflects the diverse cultures of our nation.