On Center: Imani Winds and Catalyst Quartet Will Play Commissioned Music at Schwab

by John Mark Rafacz, Town&Gown on July 24, 2019

The winds – and strings – of change are coming to Schwab Auditorium.

Imani Winds and Catalyst Quartet will join talents for (im)migration: music of change, a September 18 concert featuring a new work by Catalyst violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery.

The composition is inspired by the Great Migration of African Americans, during the early to middle 20th century, from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley. The nonet will bring together spirituals and work songs that reflect her ancestor’s route from Mississippi through the West, north to the Dakotas, and eventually south to Georgia.

Through the special timbral effects of this mix of winds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn) and strings (two violins, viola, and cello), the Montgomery composition will transform the ancestral stories, and reflections upon them, into music. The work, yet to be titled, continues the storytelling tradition passed through the composer’s mother – playwright, actor, and teacher Robbie McCauley.

The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State co-commissioned Montgomery’s composition through its membership in the national consortium Music Accord, which commissioned the work in conjunction with the Sphinx Organization.

The program is also scheduled to include Imani Winds performing Afro Blue (a jazz standard) by Mongo Santamaria and Cane by Jason Moran (inspired by the composer’s Louisiana bayou ancestry); Catalyst Quartet playing Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (a mixture of Western classical and Andean folk elements) by Gabriela Frank; and both ensembles performing Concierto de Camara by Puerto Rico native Roberto Sierra.