The 43rd Contemporary Music Festival

October 13-15, 2024

Three days of concerts and events celebrating new music, featuring guest composer Jessie Montgomery and guest ensemble Synergy Virtuosi with JMU viola professor Diane Phoenix-Neal. Other featured performers include guest pianist Richard Shuster and JMU clarinet professor Šarūnas Jankauskas. More JMU faculty will also perform, along with several major ensembles.

(subject to change)

October 12

2:30-5:00pm — Open rehearsal with Synergy Virtuosi (Forbes 1115)

October 13

2:30-4:30pm — Open rehearsal with Synergy Virtuosi and Jessie Montgomery (Forbes Concert Hall)

7:00pm — Concert I (Forbes Concert Hall) | Program Notes

Synergy Virtuosi perform music by guest composer Jessie Montgomery, Virginia composer Adolphus Hailstork, and others. JMU bass professor Sam Suggs performs his own new work, and Flutessence performs a piece by Jessie Montgomery.

October 14

9:00am — Jessie Montgomery speaks to the JMU Composition Seminar (Forbes 1201)

4:00-4:30pm — Q&A Session with Jessie Montgomery (Forbes Grand Lobby)

7:30pm — Concert II (Forbes Concert Hall) | Program Notes

The JMU Symphony Orchestra performs Jessie Montgomery, and JMU cello professor Carl Donakowski performs a work by faculty composer Eric Guinivan. In the second half of the program, faculty violinist Wanchi performs a work by Jessie Montgomery, and JMU clarinet professor Šarūnas Jankauskas is the soloist for John Adams' clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons. 

October 15

12:45pm — Jessie Montgomery Lecture hosted by the College of Arts & Letters (location TBD)

7:30pm — Concert III (Forbes Concert Hall) | Program Notes

The JMU Wind Symphony performs a new work by Jonathan Leshnoff, and faculty percussionist Casey Cangelosi performs his own solo piece for tam-tam and electronics. The JMU Percussion Ensemble will perform a work by Jessie Montgomery, and the Madison Singers will perform a winning student composition as well as a work by previous CMF guest Ingrid Stölzel. JMU faculty Sue Barber and Diane Phoenix-Neal will perform a piece by Margaret Brouwer, and guest pianist Richard Shuster will perform with faculty composer Jason Haney in a two-piano version of Haney's concerto The Ice at the End of the World.

This festival is made possible with the support of the JMU African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Center, College of Arts and Letters, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.