New Haven Symphony Orchestra: MONTGOMERY VARIATIONS

This powerful program explores themes of resilience and remembrance through Margaret Bonds’ Montgomery Variations, community singing, and Sanctum by NHSO Composer-in-Residence Courtney Bryan.

Music Director Perry So says, “In this concert I am thrilled to welcome our new composer-in-residence, Courtney Bryan, to New Haven. Over the next two seasons we will explore Courtney’s music, and get to know her multifaceted musical world that encompasses everything from concert music and jazz, to spirituals, improvisations and collaborations with visual artists. We will begin this exploration with her piece Sanctum, which weaves together recorded sermons and Courtney’s musical response to police brutality. The concert closes with a rediscovered masterpiece, Margaret Bonds’ Montgomery Variations, written at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, that takes us into the heart of a composer’s experience of the heroic struggle the brutality of the Jim Crow South.”

On the Program
Margaret Bonds Montgomery Variations
Traditional I Want Jesus to Walk with Me • This Little Light of Mine
Courtney Bryan Sanctum

Featured Performers
New Haven Symphony Orchestra
Perry So, conductor & music director
Courtney Bryan, piano