American Composers Orchestra Announces Composers OutFront! Jessie Montgomery, 2/25

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will present Composers OutFront! Jessie Montgomery (violinist, composer) on Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 8pm at Speyer Hall, University Settlement (184 Eldridge St., NYC) as part of the Composers Now Festival. ACO’s Composers OutFront! series puts composers on the stage, bringing audiences closer to the creative process. With her string quartet, PUBLIQuartet (Montgomery and Curtis Stewart, violins; Nick Revel, viola; and Amanda Gookin, cello), Montgomery will perform her recent works Voodoo Dolls: Music for Dance, 3 Scenes for String Quartet, and Standing/Forward, plus music she has written for the play The Family Shakespeare (MTWorks). In addition, with a chamber ensemble she will perform her scores for three short films that will be screened – Sketch by Lou Hamou-Lhdaj, Homecoming by Josiah Signor and Gritty Committee, and Bubble tree by Ran Jing. The concert will begin with the world premiere of Montgomery’s Scherzo for Winds performed by Eric Lamb, flute; Katie Sheele, oboe; Joshua Rubin, clarinet; and Rebekah Heller, bassoon.

Jessie Montgomery is ACO’s Van Lier Emerging Composer Fellow. The fellowship is made possible by the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund and Musical Arts Fund of the New York Community Trust. The Fellowship offers a comprehensive and multi-faceted program that helps equip emerging composers with the full range of professional skills and tools necessary for building a successful career as a composer of orchestral music. Young composers have the opportunity to work with ACO artistic and administrative leadership to hone their professional skills; participate in planning, educational activities and performances; serve as liaison with student composers, and enhance their professional careers by immersing themselves in the professional environment of ACO, over the course of an entire season. The fellowship is designed to provide a career-development bridge between a young composer’s training at the University or Conservatory and the world of the professional orchestra.

Jessie Montgomery, composer-performer
Jessie Montgomery is a New York native violinist, composer and music educator. She is a composer and performer of film, theater and concert music, appearing regularly in New York’s classical and new music arenas. Montgomery is a founding member of PUBLIQuartet, a string quartet that aims to present contemporary and traditional classical works to diverse audiences, highlighting the voices of New York-based composers. Montgomery was also a core member of the Providence String Quartet from 2004-2009, quartet in residence of Community Music Works (CMW). The Providence String Quartet is dedicated to using music as a means of exploring possibilities for social change in underserved communities in the Providence area. Her deftness as an ensemble player has lead to collaborations with such established groups as The Orion String Quartet, The Miro String Quartet, and The Knights. Known to stretch her classical bounds, she joined clarinetist and composer Don Byron in his ensemble performance of the music of Mickey Katz at the Portland Jazz Festival in February 2011. Montgomery has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports the accomplishments of young African-American and Latino string players, since 1999. Since her involvement with Sphinx, Montgomery has been a two-time laureate in their annual competition, was Concertmaster of their 2009 national tour, and serves on the faculty of the Sphinx Performance Summer Academy.

As a composer, Montgomery was in Residence at the Deer Valley Music Festival under the direction of American composer Joan Tower in 2008. She was the two-time recipient of the Composer’s Apprentice Award given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and she has served as resident composer for the Providence String Quartet. Montgomery has been commissioned by several youth arts organizations including CMW, Jump! Dance Company in Providence, and The Norwood School in Bethesda, MD. Upcoming commissions include a score for the film Le Spectre Rouge, by 1930s filmmaker Segundo de Chomon to be performed live to film as part of the Catalan Film Festival at the National Gallery in May 2012; and a piece for string orchestra to be played on tour with the Sphinx Virtuosi in Fall 2012. Currently, Montgomery is the American Composers Orchestra Van Lier Emerging Composer Fellow which is made possible by the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund and Musical Arts Fund of the New York Community Trust. Montgomery holds a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School in violin performance and is currently completing Graduate Studies in Film Scoring at New York University.