Source Code (2013)
Jessie Montgomery (b. New York City, 1981) 
New dances by Spectrum Dance Theater’s Donald Byrd (2025)
World Premiere commissioned by Music of Remembrance

Jessie Montgomery is a GRAMMY Award-winning composer, violinist and educator whose work interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness. Her profound works have been described by the Washington Post as “turbulent, wildly colorful, and exploding with life,” and are performed regularly by leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists around the world. She recently concluded a three-year appointment as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence.

Our performance of Source Code is enhanced by new dances we commissioned from Donald Byrd of Spectrum Dance Theater. Byrd’s choreography adds a riveting kinetic dimension to the work. In visualizing these dances for Source Code, he imagined the spiritual I Love The Lord as the basis for physical gestures. Singer Josephine Howell performs that moving spiritual, leading directly into Jessie Montgomery’s Source Code.
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Music of Remembrance Ensemble: 

Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola
Walter Gray, cello; Jonathan Green, double bass; Cristina Valdes, piano
​​​​​​​Josephine Howell, soloist