Jessie Montgomery offers listening selections for Black History Month

While growing up, Jessie Montgomery realized that she didn’t know of any composers who looked like her.

“I didn’t learn about Black composers until I was 18 or 19,” said Montgomery, Mead Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in a recent interview with the Classical Post. “I had never heard of a Black composer in my life.” As a consequence, Montgomery said she internalized the idea “without even realizing it that Black composers were not as good as white composers. It took me a long time to ever admit that I thought that.”

Since then, along with her work as a composer and violinist, she has devoted herself to music advocacy and education. Beginning in 1999, Montgomery became affiliated with the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latino musicians preparing for classical music careers.

Through the Sphinx Organization, the Catalyst Quartet got its start in 2010. (Montgomery was a Catalyst member until 2020.) Through Azica Records, the quartet recently launched its “Uncovered” series, devoted to neglected works by Black composers. With guest clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Stewart Goodyear, Vol. 1 features pieces by Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and  Vol. 2 focuses on Florence Price. The two “Uncovered” discs are among Montgomery’s listening recommendations for Black History Month.

Also on her list are pianist Lara Downes’ “Reflections: Scott Joplin Reconsidered” (2022) and “Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers” (2021). The latter, released by Evanston-based Cedille Records, features baritone Will Liverman and pianist Paul Sánchez in works by, among others, Harry Burleigh, Margaret Bonds and Shawn E. Okpebholo. A Ryan Opera Center alumnus, Liverman commissioned Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches, heard on “Dreams of a New Day,” a Grammy nominee this year for best classical solo vocal album.

(Okpebholo’s “Ballad of Birmingham,” from Two Black Churches, and “Oh, Glory” will be heard in world-premiere arrangements at the next CSO MusicNOW concert on March 14. Liverman starred in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2021-22 season and which Lyric Opera of Chicago will present March 24-April 8, again with Liverman in the title role.)

Through her platforms, Montgomery continues her quest to help further the cause of diversity. In the Classical Post article, she referred to how this goal can be unjustly brushed aside as “identity politics." “They think everybody’s making too much of a big deal of identity politics within music,” she said. “It’s understandable. I wish it wasn’t a problem. ... But now that those doors have been opened, I feel honored to bring my voice into the conversation.”