MusicNOW to Present Curtis Stewart In Premiere Of His Violin Concerto And Jessie Montgomery's Concerto Grosso

On Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 4:30pm at Symphony Center, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association will present "Jessie Montgomery & Curtis Stewart," a celebration of composer-performers. Called "capable of practically anything" by Downbeat, composer and violinist Curtis Stewart performs as featured soloist in the world premiere of Resonance, the first movement from his Violin Concerto No.1. Stewart also performs in selections from of Love., his musical essay on grief captured in his GRAMMY-nominated album of the same name on New Amsterdam Records. 

For his piece Embrace, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra and recorded as a track on the same album, Stewart features in a special live performance crafted for this program: Prior to the concert, Stewart will visit a Chicago school to conduct interviews about the nature and meaning of music, gathering quotes to be played back during the performance. Chicago Opera Theater Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts this program also featuring works by composer, conductor and educator Tania León; composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey; and the world premiere of Concerto Grosso, a new work by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery.

Commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association as part of the MusicNOW program, Resonance is the first of three movements in Stewart's Violin Concerto No 1. With stylistic nods to such influences as Ligeti, Stravinsky and Wieniawski, the short, scherzo-like work cunningly combines elements of contemporary jazz voicing with the frenetic and minimalist grooves of contemporary "Trap" music and an introspective counterpoint reminiscent of Shostakovich.

As a full album, of Love. explores Stewart's poignant journey as loving son, advocate, and caretaker after his mother's brain cancer diagnosis. As her illness advanced, he turned to music for a path through his grief - and through the strange and unsettling maze of emotions evoked by her all-too-familiar apartment, which he inherited after her death at age 66 in 2021. He discusses the work in depth in an audio essay, A Life Cycle of Grief, recently featured in WQXR's Artist Propulsion Lab Podcast Articles.

By exposing and navigating the composer's own vulnerability, of Love. represents an offering of comfort for those who are grieving, and a call to reject the shame around the perceived weakness that can accompany grief: "to realize that in our 'weakness,' we are made strong," Stewart said. "of Love. is a form of musical caretaking. These works flow directly out of a visceral sensation of holding and loss - a sonic grappling with grief. Our world is in a permanent state of loss and hope and hardship and joy and struggle. That is a reality worth making music about."

Program Details
Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Presents of Love. in "Jessie Montgomery & Curtis Stewart"
CSO Symphony Center | Chicago, IL
Tickets: $30-50
Link: https://cso.org/performances/23-24/cso-musicnow/montgomery-stewart/

Program:
León - Arenas D'Un Tiempo (1992)
Stewart - of Love (2023)
Sorey - For Fred Lerdahl (2019)
Montgomery - Concerto Grosso (2024) [World Premiere]
Stewart - Embrace (2023)
Stewart - Resonance (2024) [World Premiere]

Curtis Stewart, Composer and Violin
Lidiya Yankovskaya, Conductor
Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

About Curtis Stewart

Praised for "combining omnivory and brilliance" (The New York Times), three-time GRAMMY Award-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart translates stories of self determination to the concert stage. Tearing down the facade of "classical violinist," Stewart is in constant pursuit of his musical authenticity, treating art as a battery for realizing citizenship. As a solo violinist, composer, Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, professor at The Juilliard School, and member of award-winning ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail, he realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures and musics. JazzTimes raves, "he shows his audience the colors inside of himself-color(s) not yet invented. Far from self-indulgent, it is self-revelatory. It is vulnerable. It is creation."

As a soloist, Curtis Stewart has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Cal Performances, Washington Performing Arts, Virginia Arts Festival, The Juilliard School, and the 2022 GRAMMY Awards, among many others. He has made special appearances with Los Angeles Opera and singer-songwriter Tamar Kali; as curator and guest soloist with Anthony Roth Costanzo and the New York Philharmonic "Bandwagon," touring performance installations from NYC's Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art; to MTV specials with Wyclef Jean; and sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and Seal. Stewart's 2021 album of quarantined song cycles and art videos, Of Power (Bright Shiny Things), was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

Stewart has been commissioned to compose new solo, chamber, and orchestral works by the Seattle Symphony, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall's Play/USA, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and members of the New York Philharmonic, The Knights, La Jolla Music Society, Sybarite5, the New York Festival of Song, Newport Classical Festival, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Eastman Cello Institute, and more. In 2022, he was named Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, a national organization dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by diverse and innovative American composers.

Curtis Stewart is a member of award-winning ensembles, PUBLIQuartet (Chamber Music America Visionary award, winner Concert Artist Guild, 2023 Grammy Award Nomination) and The Mighty Third Rail (Best Music, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Comic Book Theater Festival). PUBLIQuartet's album What Is American (Bright Shiny Things) was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award. He has held chamber music residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, and made return appearances at the Newport, Detroit, Vision, NYC Winter Jazz Festivals. Curtis Stewart has worked with many of today's forward-thinking musicians, including Henry Threadgill, SilkRoad Ensemble, Jessie Montgomery, Alicia Hall-Moran and Jason Moran, Mark O'Connor, Julia Bullock, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Billy Childs, Alarm Will Sound, Linda Oh, JACK Quartet, members of Snarky Puppy, Don Byron, Matt Wilson, among many others.

An avid teacher, Curtis Stewart teaches Chamber Music, Improvised Chamber Music, and "Cultural Equity and Performance Practice" at The Juilliard School; directs the Contemporary Chamber Music program at the Perlman Music Program; served on the board of Concert Artist Guild; conducted several orchestras and opera pit orchestras; and for 10 years led all levels of music theory and string orchestra at the Laguardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City.

Stewart was born into a musical family - his father is avant jazz tuba pioneer Bob Stewart and mother Elektra Kurtis, a soulful Greek jazz violinist - who formed the framework of his sound world through daring improvisation, rigorous western classical training, and conceptual composition. Learn more at www.curtisjstewart.com.

Photo Credit: Titilayo Ayangade

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