Cynthia Yeh takes center stage for the premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s ’Procession’

When Cynthia Yeh decided she wanted to commission a concerto under the auspices of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble’s principal percussion didn’t have to look far for a composer.

Yeh turned to Jessie Montgomery, who has served as the CSO’s Mead Composer-in-Residence since July 2021. “I just asked her if she would, and I couldn’t believe that she said yes,” Yeh said. Because the Orchestra has regularly played Montgomery’s music during her three-year tenure, which concludes June 30, the percussionist has gotten to know and appreciate Montgomery’s style.

“A lot of percussion concerti are very, very super-duper busy, drummy, all-out, all-the-time, let’s-see-how-many-things-you-can-play-at-the-same-time kinds of things,” Yeh said. “And her music, in general, is not like that, and I was just curious what she thought about it, and she agreed and voila!”

“A lot of percussion concerti are very, very super-duper busy, drummy, all-out, all-the-time, let’s-see-how-many-things-you-can-play-at-the-same-time kinds of things,” Yeh said. “And [Montogmery’s] music, in general, is not like that . . ."

Manfred Honeck, music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, will be on the podium May 30-31 and June 1 when Yeh serves as soloist for the world premiere of the resulting concerto, titled Procession. “I’m excited and terrified at the same time,” she said.

In addition to taking a solo role occasionally with smaller orchestras, Yeh has performed concertos twice previously with the CSO, including the American premiere in 2019 of Israeli-born composer Avner Dorman’s Eternal Rhythm. “It’s always a nice change to do that,” she said, “to get the other perspective of the soloist side, just to get a taste of their lives, because we see so many soloists come in and out every week.”

Yeh approached Montgomery, the recent recipient of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, about a possible concerto two years ago or so, and the composer was enthusiastic about the possibility. “It just made a lot sense,” Montgomery said. “Writing for percussion is new to me, and I thought this would be a good, big way to get into the world of percussion, and my music is rhythmically inspired, so it felt like a natural way to communicate that.”

“It just made a lot sense,” Montgomery said. “Writing for percussion is new to me, and I thought this would be a good, big way to get into the world of percussion, and my music is rhythmically inspired, so it felt like a natural way to communicate that.”

Every commission is a collaboration to certain degree, but Montgomery worked more closely with Yeh than she might have with players of other pieces because she was less familiar with the percussion world. “It’s been great like that,” Yeh said. “I get to have input.” At first, it was a question of just orienting Montgomery to all of the possible percussion instruments she could employ and seeing what sounds took her fancy. “Then once it was written,” Yeh said, “it was like, ‘Well, we’ve got to be more specific about exactly what sounds you want because that really does change how I set things up.’”

The five-movement piece is inspired in part by the Freedom Now Suite, which was developed by jazz drummer Max Roach and lyricist Oscar Brown. The work is featured on a well-regarded 1960 recording that includes vocalist Abby Lincoln on all five tracks. “I just thought the way Max Roach responds on the drums to her melodies inspired this really melodic approach to the drums that I tried to capture in some of the sections of the piece,” Montgomery said.

Yeh separately used the word “melodic” as well, but not in the usual sense, in describing the work, which calls for her to perform on the drum set, djembe (a goblet-shaped, rope-tuned drum originally from West Africa), vibraphone, glockenspiel, tom tom, kick drum and bass drum. “To me,” she said, “there is room for a lot of space in this piece, which is very unusual for a percussion concerto — space and breath for the sounds to actually be sounds. The piece allows me to play melodically on unpitched things — ‘melodically’ as in not just the pitch of the drums make up a tune but the drums can also phrase just like the melody phrases.”

So far, the percussionist has only heard a computer-generated performance of the work, which, not surprisingly, can sound a bit stiff and robotic. She is looking forward to hearing it live with the full orchestra. “I know my part well, and I know what I think they are going to be playing, but then to have that interaction is going to be interesting,” she said.

As the concerto progresses, Yeh will perform her solos at two groups of instruments at the front of the stage, what she calls “set-ups,” and two on a raised platform to the audience’s left, where the piano and harp are often placed. She has spoken with the stagehands about how everything will be arranged, but she suspects she will have to make a few tweaks once she gets onstage for the rehearsals. “I know where are all my changes and turns need to be,” she said, “and I have good idea of how they’re setting up the violins, including where my [access] path will be, and how close I’m going to be to the piccolos.”

Yeh plans to also perform Procession with a couple of orchestras where she had to postpone solo appearances because of the COVID-19 shutdown, and she is hopeful that other percussionists will want to take it on as well. “That would be nice,” she said. But she knows its future life will depend in large part on the work’s reception by audiences and critics.