PSO Virtual Concert Features Works By Montgomery, Elgar, And Tchaikovsky

On Sunday, May 23 at 4pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) will broadcast a virtual concert programmed with Jessie Montgomery's lively Strum leading into the heartfelt works of Edward Elgar's Sospiri, Op. 70, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48. The concert will be conducted by Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov.

"It is exciting to perform Jessie Montgomery's work with its fresh perspective. I'm looking forward to following her artistic career," says Maestro Milanov. "The necessary focus this year on works with smaller orchestrations has allowed us the opportunity to appreciate the delicacy and pure beauty of music written for string ensemble."

Montgomery's Strum premiered in 2012 at the 15th Annual Sphinx Competition. It interweaves melodies drawn from folk idioms with a spirit of dance and movement, and has been described as "Turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life" (Washington Post).

Composer, violinist, and educator Jessie Montgomery is the winner of both the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the ASCAP Foundation's Leonard Bernstein Award. She has just been appointed to a three-year term as Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Montgomery's music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. The first recording devoted to her music, Strum: Music for Strings, was released by Azica Records in 2015. She is currently a Graduate Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton University.

The remainder of the concert's program is devoted to two master orchestrators Elgar and Tchaikovsky. Elgar's Sospiri (Sighs) was composed in 1914 on the eve of World War I, and reflects the mood of the times with its melancholy intensity. Tchaikovsky drew inspiration for his Serenade from Mozart, but the work ends with decidedly Russian exuberance.

Single device tickets for PSO virtual concerts are available for $15 and includes on-demand access post-broadcast for one week. Available by calling 609-497-0020 and princetonsymphony.org.