Source Code
Jessie Montgomery
 
The first sketches of Source Code began as transcriptions of various sources from African American artists prominent during the peak of the Civil Rights era in the United States. I experimented by re-interpreting gestures, sentences, and musical syntax (the bare bones of rhythm and inflection) by choreographer Alvin Ailey, poets Langston Hughes and Rita Dove, and the great jazz songstress Ella Fitzgerald into musical sentences and tone paintings. Ultimately, this exercise of listening, re-imagining, and transcribing led me back to the Black spiritual as a common musical source across all three genres. The spiritual is a significant part of the DNA of Black folk music, and subsequently most (arguably all) American pop music forms that have developed to the present day. This one-movement work is a kind of dirge, which centers on a melody based on syntax derived from Black spirituals. The melody is continuous and cycles through like a gene strand with which all other textures play.
 
—Jessie Montgomery
 
 
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Maurice Ravel
 
Maurice Ravel was born on March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France. He was an Impressionist composer who began his studies at the age of seven, later enrolling in the Paris Conservatory at just 14 years old. During this time, Ravel studied composition under Gabriel Fauré. He is most known for his orchestral work Bolero as well his opera L’Enfant et les Sortileges.
 
Le Tombeau de Couperin, which Ravel described as “directed less in fact to Couperin himself than to French music of the 18th century,” was originally composed as a suite for solo piano and orchestrated in 1919. In this piece, Ravel pays homage to the age of François Couperin, dedicating each movement of the original suite to a friend who died in combat. The title “tombeau”, translates to “tomb” and also references a French musical term that meant “memorial” – it often served as a tribute work to a single person. He intertwined rhythmic and melodic forms and cadences from Couperin’s time with his own.
 
Ravel began composing this piece in 1914 before the war. He wrote to Cipa Godebski, “I am transcribing a forlane by Couperin. I will see about getting it danced at the Vatican by Mistinguett and Colette Willy in drag.”
 
Two years after the piano suite was completed, Ravel began to orchestrate four of the six original movements at the request of his publisher. The Prélude begins with the solo oboe and features sixteenth note passages played by the winds. The Forlane mirrors the Venetian passamezzo and is played in 6/8 meter with the prominent parts still in the winds. A forlane is a northern Italian dance, and this movement is the most directly related to Couperin. The Menuet retains the stateliness of the baroque form and the last movement, Rigaudon, is a dance that was popularized in the French courts and featured hopping steps.
 
–Sylvia Ettinger (BM ’25)
 
 
Symphony No. 8 in F Major, op. 93
Ludwig van Beethoven
 
By 1812 when Ludwig Van Beethoven composed his Eighth Symphony, his name was already well known and his reputation well established. Yet at the premiere in 1814, the audience lacked its usual enthusiasm for this new work. Unlike his previous string of symphonies, Beethoven’s eighth is uncharacteristically light and gentle. With declining health and hearing, the Eighth Symphony marked the end of a period of Beethoven’s life that was immensely productive, where all seven of his prior symphonies were composed one after the other. After a decade break, the Ninth Symphony would be the final composition of Beethoven’s life, and arguably the most beloved of them all. Although often overlooked by his other magnificent works, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 is a beautiful expression of art and grace.
 
The Eight Symphony begins at a flying speed, with a joyful sounding melody and dynamics that bounce up and down. Similar to the openings of his other works, the first movement is written in sonata form, yet strays from the expected pattern by having the height of the movement occur right before the recapitulation, rather than during the development. The second movement incorporates Beethoven’s creative humor, seeming to parody the recent invention of the metronome through the repetitive beats played in sync by the woodwinds and horns.
 
Movement three continues in the light hearted style already established, with the most recognizable solos of the piece being performed by the clarinet and horns. The fourth movement sounds like a true finale, with the tempo gradually accelerating up to the speed at which the whole work began. The piece ends triumphantly with an extended closing cadence that grows in volume and excitement until the final chord.
 
–Evelyn Webber (MM ’25)

Jeri Lynne Johnson
 
In 2005 Jeri made history as the first Black woman to win an international conducting prize when she was awarded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. Since then she has continued to break barriers in Europe and the US as the first woman and/or African-American woman on the podium for many orchestras and opera companies in the US and Europe including the Bournemouth Symphony (UK), the Weimar Staatskapelle. Recent conducting engagements include performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Sao Paulo Municipal Symphony Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera. Jeri was also selected to conduct the Pulitzer Prize winning composition Stride by Tania Leon as part of the composer’s tribute for the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors performance.
 
Lauded by the Los Angeles Times as “a stunning, rhythmically vital conductor,” Jeri is a versatile artist who is comfortable with a variety of genres and styles. Jeri has developed a reputation for offering masterful and compelling performances of contemporary repertoire and has led numerous world premieres. In the 2022–2023 season, Jeri performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Santa Fe Opera, and Cincinnati Symphony. In the 2023–2024 Jeri led performances with the Oakland Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the National Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Symphony Orchestra.
 
Jeri is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra – a model for the 21st-century American orchestra. Established in 2008, Black Pearl combines artistic excellence, cultural diversity and meaningful community engagement and has been recognized nationally and internationally as an award-winning leading innovator in social justice and racial equity. In January 2021, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra had the honor of being the only orchestra in North America invited to participate in a virtual collaborative concert as part of the World Economic Forum at Davos. This inspiring event called See Me! A Global Concert involved filmmakers, visual artists, choirs, orchestras and musicians from around the world.
 
Based upon her work with Black Pearl, Jeri established DEI Arts Consulting in 2015 as a vehicle to share the insights and results of Black Pearl’s programs through data-driven strategic and creative solutions for institutions seeking to create a culture of belonging.