MEET THE COMPOSER
An award-winning composer and violinist, Jessie Montgomery is composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and enjoys partnerships with ensembles and organisations across the US. Her 2023 work Musings receives its New York City premiere on 18 January from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
I grew up in an artistic household. My dad ran his music studio out of our house, so I was always surrounded by music. I took violin lessons, starting with the Suzuki method and then learning the traditional European classical repertoire. My parents were into super-avant-garde stuff, so it was an interesting juxtaposition. I think that definitely filtered into my desire to meld multiple styles of music.
I started composing when I was really young. My violin teacher also taught improvisation, with these fun exercises and games, and she encouraged me to start composing. She said if I could hear it and I could read it, I could start writing it down; so I took it on pretty quickly and excitedly.
I resisted calling myself a composer for a long time. I had such high esteem for that label that it took me a long time to feel deserving of it. There was a point in the early 2000s at which I started getting more commissions and began to feel like I was participating as a composer.
