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. In this special evening of duo performances, Montgomery has chosen three of her own works complimented by works of her contemporaries, Lee and Cassarubios. This program showcases the way composers use the duo to explore concise counterpoint between players, distinct individual voices of each player, and how the form can contain the most unencumbered and explorative motivic language of the composer's voice.

This program is funded in part by the Friedrich Ludwig Diehn Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.
Media Sponsors: Audacy and WHRO Public Media

MONTGOMERY Peace for Clarinet and Piano
MONTGOMERY Musings for Two Violins
CASARUBIOS Speechless for Cello and Percussion
LEE Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano
MONTGOMERY Duo for Violin and Cello