![]() We are going from a much smaller instrumentation in my original dance piece to one in which the music is for a much larger ensemble, but at the same time can be much more intensely concentrated. ![]() “He seemed satisfied with how it seems to flow as we looked over the score. “He didn’t ask me a ton of questions this time around,” she said. The composer is keen to hear what Muti will do with it. If the word “passage” summons the specter of the dread ocean crossing that left so many souls at the bottom of the ocean and awakened others into slavery, there are also aspects of its meaning that Montgomery found to be inherent in the water’s surge, its expanse, its mystery, and its transformative power: “These are elements that have since flowed through other pieces I’ve written, incorporating themes of self-reflection and the natural world - perhaps as a way to regain a connection to self and purpose,” she said. Then later, I reworked the music for dancers with full orchestra, and elements of that music have stayed with me still.” I called it Passage, and it was for nine players - including me on violin - at the Virginia Arts Festival in 2019 with the Dance Theatre of Harlem performing. “ Transfigure to Grace started out as a much smaller piece for the 1619 Project. “I was just speaking with maestro Muti about the origin, and how it is the latest of several works dealing with some of the same musical ideas,” Montgomery said in a conversation before rehearsals of the new piece began. Her new work for the CSO, which receives its world-premiere performances May 11-16, is called Transfigure to Grace. After writing something for that 400th anniversary year, she soon found that she was not yet finished mining the 1619 Project’s rich vein of inspiration. On that single ship were some 20 shackled detainees, destined for slavery in the British colony of Virginia, with many more vessels to follow.Īmong the artists asked to compose a work for this project was Jessie Montgomery, Mead Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It was a massive effort by the Pulitzer Foundation and the New York Times to reflect on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African captives to the American shore. Five years ago, Black creative and performing artists nationwide were tapped to be a part of the 1619 Project.
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