Jessie Montgomery (b 1981) is one of today's most relevant and important interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. She has been involved with Community MusicWorks, a Providence, Rhode Island community outreach music education program, as well as the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based nonprofit that supports young African American and Latinx string players. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, and has been performed by such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, A Far Cry, San Francisco Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony.
Montgomery writes of her setting of the traditional Black Spiritual ''I Want to Go Home'': ''My setting is inspired by the simple way it was transcribed as a simple seven-note melody without an indicated rhythm which inspired me to write it ina hybrid Gregorian chant/spiritual style.'' Achingly beautiful vocal lines are matched by rich harmonies in the strings. This work can be performed for soprano (or treble instrument) with string quartet, string quintet (with optional double bass), or string orchestra.
