Composer Conversations

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. The title of her new work, CHEMILUMINESCENCE, refers to the chemical reaction that produces light from a non-light source, such as the glow of a firefly, or bioluminescence in the ocean, or the light produced from a cracked glow stick. Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Anne- Marie McDermott sits down with the composer for a discussion about interpreting light sources, the endless field of potential sound exploration, and “finding corollary between music and the natural world.”