Ravinia 2022, Issue 3

RICARDO QUINONES (CATALYST); PATRICK GIPSON (AT RAVINIA) Above: Montgomery attended Ravinia’s Gala Benefit Evening— the annual fundraising concert hosted by the Women’s Board to support Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play music education and engagement programs in Chicago-area schools and their communities—in 2021 for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first performance of her work Starburst , and also met backstage with another star of the evening, actor and singer Cynthia Erivo, who excitedly talked with the composer about music making and education. Left: Between 2012 and 2021, Montgomery was a member of the Catalyst Quartet, with which she completed and premiered her (currently) most-performed work, Strum . The CSO performed the string orchestra version shortly after naming her its Mead Composer in Residence last April. is highly valuable for a young artist,” Valarino Boyer said, “so they see how they are part of the music-making, of bringing that score to life, and have a conversation with the composer to really understand what he or she was considering and thinking about.” Among the composers who have visited the Steans Institute for varying lengths of time include Pulitzer Prize winners like William Bolcom, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Shulamit Ran as well as such other notables as Leon Kirch- ner, Libby Larsen, and Ramsey Lewis. Montgomery was selected as this summer’s composer-in-residence by Miriam Fried, the respected violinist and pedagogue who has been the director of the Steans Institute’s Piano & Strings Program for nearly 30 years. Two of her students at the New England Conservatory chose to learn a piece by Montgomery that Fried didn’t know, and the violinist was taken with it. “She had a real flair for finding sounds on the instrument that I found very interesting,” Fried said. “And, so, I was intrigued, and I went and looked up what was available [by Montgomery].” A big advantage with Montgom- ery, Valarino Boyer said, is that she is writing regularly and her works are heard all over the country. “It’s really exciting to have somebody who is prolific now,” she said, “not some- body who is budding or maybe was prolific a long time ago, but whose works are actively being played and heard. And on the top of that, what’s exciting about Jessie is that she is also an educator. She is currently teaching and is well in tune with what young musicians are going through today and what they are learning.” Montgomery will be the first Black woman to serve as composer-in-res- idence at the Steans Institute, and Fried is eager for its fellows to draw on a perspective that remains all too rare in a field that has long been dominated by white men. “I told her,” Fried said, “I was interested in having conversations about: What is the role of the composer? How do we incorpo- rate more women in the profession? What are the issues she confronted as a Black woman composer and what is that we can all do make it better?” The composer never set out to be an activist, but she has been thrown into that role by virtue of her race and gender, especially since the rise of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements in recent years and the urgency for change they have spurred. “Ideally, when I was starting out,” Montgomery said, “I would have preferred to just to know 100 percent that everything that I’m doing is being supported because of the work itself and not those identifiers. But over the years, I’ve just had to make sense it of all and just trust that it was ‘both and,’ and that it is important in our society to have that representation. So, I’ve grown into it.” Her advocacy has taken many forms, including serving on national panels, speaking out in the press, and curating events like MusicNOW, the Chicago Symphony’s contemporary music series at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. As the orchestra’s composer-in-residence, she chooses the composers who are featured, and she has put an emphasis on those from under-represented groups. She has also been extremely involved with the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based group that promotes the participation of people of color in classical music, and is a recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. She has evolved from being a high-school competitor in the Sphinx Competition to touring with the Sphinx Virtuosi to teaching, as noted, at the Sphinx Performance Academy. While Montgomery sees a more equitable mix of composers being showcased in the classical world and more groups taking a socially conscious approach to the artists they present, there still remain varying levels of commitment to inclusion and diversity. On positive side, she has been impressed, for example, by the long-term commitment that the Chi- cago Symphony has made to her, giv- ing her a residency of three years and agreeing to commission three major orchestral works and some chamber music. Overall, despite continuing challenges, she is optimistic about the direction of change in the field. “In general, I tend to focus on the positives,” she said. “That’s just my thing in life.” Kyle MacMillan served as classical music critic for the Denver Post from 2000 through 2011. He currently freelances in Chicago, writing for such publications and websites as the Chicago Sun- Times , Early Music America , Opera News , and Classical Voice of North America . RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 18 – JULY 31, 2022 22