{"id":273702,"date":"2024-04-25T12:16:38","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T18:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/?p=273702"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:21:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T20:21:46","slug":"2024-rounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/2024-rounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Awadagin Pratt & Jessie Montgomery\u2019s Grammy-Winning Rounds \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photograph by Jiyang Chen Photography
\nStory by Kyle MacMillan<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Jessie Montgomery\u2019s first piano concerto, which won the 2024 Grammy Award for best contemporary classical composition, ranks among the classical world\u2019s biggest success stories of the past two years, and the work\u2019s popularity just keeps soaring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since its world premiere in March 2022, <\/span>Rounds <\/span><\/i>has received more than 50 performances by 30 ensembles, including such heavy-hitters as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra.<\/span><\/p>\n

And more presentations are on the way, including <\/span>July 25<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>26<\/span><\/a> concerts at the Colorado Music Festival that will showcase <\/span>Rounds<\/span><\/i> with Music Director Peter Oundjian on the podium and the soloist for whom it was written, Awadagin Pratt, front and center.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very cool piece,\u201d the veteran pianist said. \u201cIt\u2019s been very popular with audiences. It has dimension to it, it has depth to it. A lot of beauty to it, and a lot energy to it. It\u2019s been very rewarding to play and to be able to share with audiences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Oundjian has long been a fan of Montgomery, Musical America\u2019s 2023 Composer of the Year. Her career got a big boost in April 2021, when the Chicago Symphony named her as its 11th composer-in-residence, a post that concludes at the end of the 2024-25 season. \u201cJessie is a really interesting composer,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed the spirit of her music and hearing it develop as she writes more and more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The two also share a special connection as previous members of noted string quartets. Oundjian served as first violinist of the famed Tokyo String Quartet, and Montgomery was a member in 2012-2020 of the Catalyst String Quartet, which championed <\/span>Strum<\/span><\/i> (2006-12), the first work that gained her widespread notice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pratt grabbed the classical world\u2019s attention when he won the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1992 and received an Avery Fisher Career Grant two years later, and he has gone on to enjoy a distinguished performing career since.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pianist has devoted much of his career to teaching, starting at the <\/span>University of Cincinnati<\/span><\/a> College-Conservatory of Music<\/span><\/a> in 2005, where he ascended to the post of professor of music. Last fall, he moved to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, attracted to the school\u2019s first-rate facilities and its approach to preparing students for the realities of 21<\/span>st<\/span>-century careers. \u201cThe opportunity came and I leapt at it,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2023, Pratt was featured in a documentary film version of a narrated musical program that he put together in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis. Titled <\/span>Awadagin Pratt: Black in America<\/span><\/i><\/a>, it chronicles what he called the \u201cstaggering\u201d number of times he has been stopped by police because of the color of his skin. \u201cI realized that many people have no idea of the number of things that have happened to me in my lifetime, and I have no association with criminality or any artist record,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

While that presentation examines the uglier side of race relations in the United States, Pratt has been encouraged by the efforts that classical organizations across the country are making toward greater equity and inclusion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been talk of diversity my entire career,\u201d he said, \u201cbut a lot of these efforts were just in name only, and I think now there is a little bit more execution \u2014 diversity in programming of composers, for example, Jessie Montgomery, but also in the artists. I think things are slowly improving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rounds <\/span><\/i>was commissioned by Pratt\u2019s Art of the Piano Foundation with nine co-commissioning orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony, Kansas City (Mo.) Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony taking part in the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor all intents and purposes I do consider it a concerto,\u201d Montgomery said, \u201cbut I think of it more as a rhapsody for piano and string orchestra.\u201d The piece runs 15 minutes, about the same duration as George Gershwin\u2019s famed <\/span>Rhapsody in Blue<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In her program notes for the work, she describes it as \u201ca rondo, within a rondo, within a rondo.\u201d A rondo is a musical form that traces its beginnings to early Italian opera at the turn of the 17<\/span>th<\/span> century and consists in basic terms of a main theme that alternates with any number of contrasting themes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Montgomery is quick to admit that she doesn\u2019t completely follow the traditional form. \u201cThere are a few foils in there. The cadenza breaks the pattern, which is very intentional, and within one or two of the rounds, instead of ABCBA it might be ABCBCBA or something like that,\u201d she said, using letters to distinguish the work\u2019s themes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Montgomery and Pratt met and became friends at Alaska\u2019s Sitka Chamber Music Festival when the composer was still an active violinist, but this work marked the first time they collaborated on a project.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since this was Montgomery\u2019s first work for piano, he helped her understand the technical parameters of the instrument, and she allowed him to largely craft the cadenza. \u201cThe cadenza is mine, and it\u2019s probably 10- to 20-percent improvisation each night depending on what is going on,\u201d he said. \u201cIt stays pretty fresh.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Drawing on the baroque-era origins of the rondo and wanting to showcase Pratt as much as possible, Oundjian is excited to feature <\/span>Rounds <\/span><\/i>alongside J.S. Bach\u2019s Keyboard Concerto in A major, BWV 1055, on <\/span>July 25<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>26<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Completing the program is Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s <\/span>Scheherazade<\/span><\/i>, a thrilling, ever-popular 1880 symphonic suite based on the celebrated collection of Middle Eastern folk tales known as the <\/span>Arabian Nights<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always try to find a way for people to have the opportunity to experience contemporary music, Oundjian said, \u201cbut, hopefully, it will be in a context in which they feel comfortable.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Music Director Peter Oundjian conducts the program Awadagin Pratt + Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s Scheherazade<\/i> on Thursday, July 25<\/a> and Friday, July 26<\/a>. Tickets are now available.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessie Montgomery\u2019s Rounds, which won the 2024 Grammy Award for best contemporary classical composition, ranks among the classical world\u2019s biggest success stories of the past two years, and the work\u2019s popularity just keeps soaring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":273703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[382],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}