Jessie Montgomery to Launch International Tour with New Cello Concerto

GRAMMY Award-winning composer, violinist, and educator Jessie Montgomery is launching a new concerto for solo cello and orchestra, These Righteous Paths. This new work, created for and in collaboration with South African cellist Abel Selaocoe, is part of a series of pieces inspired by the plays and poems of Montgomery's late mother, Robbie McCauley, a leading figure in the Black theater movement in post-Civil Rights era America. These Righteous Paths contains three movements: All the Ancestors and I; Another Train Poem: Part 1, Georgia and the Foreman; Part 2, Up South; and A New Song.

The world premiere of These Righteous Paths will take place on March 20, 2026 at 8:00 PM at Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in Berlin, performed by Selaocoe and conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, kicking off an international tour of the piece. On March 29, 2026 at 7:00 PM, the piece will be performed by Selaocoe with the Brussels Philharmonic at the Klarafestival in Belgium, conducted by Kazushi Ono. Then, on April 17, 2026 at 7:00 PM, JoAnn Falletta conducts Selaocoe's performance at the Narodowe Forum Muzyki (National Forum of Music in Wrocław). The North American premiere of These Righteous Paths takes place from May 14 to 16, 2026 at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno.

Future presenters and co-commissioners include the U.K. premiere by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda; the U.S. premiere by the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center in New York City led by Jonathon Heyward as part of Summer for the City; and the Aspen Music Festival and School on August 9, 2026 at 4:00 PM, all in summer 2026. Additional performances will take place in the 2026-2027 season at the Oregon Symphony on October 3, 2026 and October 4, 2026. A performance with Utah Symphony and the NTR Zaterdagmatinee will occur in the 2027-2028 season.

These Righteous Paths is an exploration of Montgomery's navigation of her grief after losing her mother five years ago. "I find myself absorbed by the sentiments in her words, comforted and inspired by them, and realizing the inherent music within them," Montgomery explains. "Reflecting inheritances from the African diaspora and its influence on the Black American experience, it is from these ancestral traces that I shape a living soundscape, one that honors what has been passed down while allowing the music to conjure new hopes and memories. I am inspired by the Sankofa image, a Ghanaian concept and symbol that describes the way we must look back in order to go forward. The figure is depicted by a bird with its head tilted backward, as if calling to the past for confirmation to take flight. Thus, there are extended passages that are inspired by the cascade and cadence of birds in flight."

Montgomery notes, "This collaboration with Abel [Selaocoe] represents a journey through worlds past and present, and is just as much inspired by McCauley's poems as it is by his unique palette of cellistic and vocal capabilities. The orchestration traverses many stylistic influences that I associate with Abel's voice-baroque continuo, song-writing, Afro-centric rhythms and melodies, virtuoso classical performance, and improvisation, to name a few. The form struggles to be contained yet relaxes into grooves and sometimes uncannily familiar melodies. While writing, I often found myself asking, 'Have I written this before?' Sometimes I think it is simply confirmation from past lives, ancestral nudges forward, as if to say: 'Yes, we are here. Keep going. You must keep going.'"

Tour Information:

Friday, March 20, 2026 at 8:00 PM

DSO Berlin Presents Abel Selaocoe

Philharmonie Berlin | Berlin, Germany

Link: www.dso-berlin.de/de/konzert/guerrero-casual-concert-philharmonie-berlin-20-03-2026/

Program:

Jessie Montgomery - These Righteous Paths [World Premiere]

1. All the Ancestors and I

2. Another Train Poem: Part 1, Georgia and the Foreman; Part 2, Up South

3. A New Song

Giancarlo Guerrero, Conductor

Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 7:00 PM

Klara Festival Presents Brussels Philharmonic, Kazushi Ono & Abel Selaocoe

Flagey, Studio 4 | Brussels, Belgium

Link: https://klarafestival.brussels/en/concert/29-03-2026/brussels-philharmonic-kazushi-ono-abel-selaocoe

Program:

Florence Price - Ethiopia's Shadow in America

Carlos Simon - Songs of Separation

1. The Garden

2. Burning Hell

3. We Are All the Same

Leonard Bernstein - Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Jessie Montgomery -These Righteous Paths [Belgium Premiere]

1. All the Ancestors and I

2. Another Train Poem: Part 1, Georgia and the Foreman; Part 2, Up South

3. A New Song

Florence Price - Symphony No. 3 in C Minor

Jessie Montgomery - Coincident Dances

Brussels Philharmonic

Kazushi Ono, Conductor

Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Mezzo-soprano

Friday, April 17, 2026 at 7:00 PM

Abel Selaocoe & NFM Wrocław Philharmonic

National Forum of Music, ORLEN Main Hall | Wrocław, Poland

Link: www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/component/nfmcalendar/event/12588

Program:

Jessie Montgomery - These Righteous Paths [Poland Premiere]

1. All the Ancestors and I

2. Another Train Poem: Part 1, Georgia and the Foreman; Part 2, Up South

3. A New Song

Astor Piazzolla - Tangazo

Leonard Bernstein - Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

JoAnn Falletta, Conductor

NFM Wrocław Philharmonic

Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Saturday, May 16, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Toronto Symphony Orchestra Presents Epic Wagner-Legends & Lore

Roy Thomson Hall | Toronto, Canada

Link: www.tso.ca/concerts-and-events/events/epic-wagner

Program:

Jessie Montgomery - These Righteous Paths [North American Premiere/TSO Co-commission]

1. All the Ancestors and I

2. Another Train Poem: Part 1, Georgia and the Foreman; Part 2, Up South

3. A New Song

Richard Wagner - Overture to The Flying Dutchman

Richard Wagner - Suite from Götterdämmerung

Gustavo Gimeno, Conductor

Sunday, August 9, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Aspen Music Festival and School Presents Festival Orchestra: Mahler's First Symphony

Klein Music Tent | Aspen, CO

Link: www.aspenmusicfestival.com/events/calendar/aspen-festival-orchestra-12

Program:

Carlos Simon - Fate Now Conquers

Jessie Montgomery - These Righteous Paths [AMFS co-commission]

1. All the Ancestors and I

2. Another Train Poem: Part 1, Georgia and the Foreman; Part 2, Up South

3. A New Song

Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 1 in D major

Saturday, October 3, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 2:00 PM

Oregon Symphony Presents Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall | Portland, OR

Link: www.orsymphony.org/productions/2627/tchaikovskys-symphony-no-5

Program:

Mikhail Glinka - Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla

Jessie Montgomery - These Righteous Paths [U.S. West Coast Premiere]

1. All the Ancestors and I

2. Another Train Poem: Part 1, Georgia and the Foreman; Part 2, Up South

3. A New Song

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

David Danzmayr, Conductor