Jessie Montgomery is an American composer and violinist who was born in 1981. She grew up in New York City, and the sounds of the city run through her music. Orchestras across the United States play her pieces. From 2021 to 2024, she was the composer in residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The best first piece for a child is “Starburst,” three and a half minutes for strings.
Quick facts
- Born: 1981, in New York City
- Lives: in the United States
- Era: Contemporary
- Plays: violin
- Known for: “Starburst,” “Strum,” “Banner,” and “Hymn for Everyone”
The life in short
Montgomery grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Her father, Ed Montgomery, is a composer. Her mother, Robbie McCauley, was a playwright and performer.
Her parents took her to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered. Her own biography says that this childhood shaped the life she built, which joins composing, playing, teaching, and speaking up.
She began the violin at four, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, a community music school in her neighborhood.
She studied violin at the Juilliard School and later earned a master’s degree at New York University. She has been a graduate fellow in composing at Princeton too.
Since 1999, she has worked with the Sphinx Organization, which supports young Black and Latino string players. She received awards from Sphinx as a young player. She is now the composer in residence for its touring ensemble, the Sphinx Virtuosi.
For years, she played in string quartets and taught young players, at a community music program in Providence, Rhode Island, among other places. Over time, composing became her main work.
From 2021 to 2024, she was the composer in residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There she started a program that helps high school students write and present their own pieces.
Musical America named her its Composer of the Year for 2023, and she has won a Grammy Award. She teaches at Northwestern University and is the composer in residence at Bard College.
She is a founding member of the Blacknificent 7, a group of composers that presents and supports the work of Black composers.
New pieces keep coming. In 2026, she wrote a rhapsody for solo violin and a piece for cello and orchestra.
What the music sounds like
Montgomery writes above all for strings, the instruments she knows from the inside. Her music joins classical forms with folk tunes, spirituals, jazz, improvising, and the dance music of New York.
The players strum, pluck, tap, and slide. The rhythms are quick and springy.
Pieces to play first
“Starburst.” A burst of fast, bright music for string orchestra. The title comes from astronomy, where a starburst is a place in a galaxy in which many new stars form in a short time.
“Strum.” The players pluck and strum their instruments the way guitar players do. A tune sings over the top. It lasts about seven minutes.
“Banner.” She wrote it in 2014 for the 200th birthday of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It weaves the American anthem together with other anthems and songs.
“Hymn for Everyone.” A slow, warm piece for orchestra, written in 2021 in answer to the pandemic. A hymn tune passes from one group of instruments to the next.
“Coincident Dances.” The music of a walk through New York, where one kind of dance music follows another around each corner.
Things to do together
Strum. Stretch rubber bands of different widths over an open box. Strum a steady beat while “Strum” plays.
Sound walk. Walk around your block. List every bit of music you hear from cars, shops, and windows. That is the idea behind “Coincident Dances.”
Two songs at once. One person hums one song while another hums a different one. Find two songs that fit together.
Draw the burst. Play “Starburst” and draw fast lines and dots for each sound you hear.
Write your own. Montgomery helps teenagers write music. Make up a tune of eight notes, write it down in any way you like, and give it a title.
Print and play
Fill in a composer study notebook page for Montgomery. Learn about her instrument in the violin for kids. She is on two of our lists: Black composers for kids and women composers for kids. For more composers at work now, read living composers kids can hear today.
For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.
Sources
Checked in November 2026.
- All Classical Radio. (2025). Montgomery, Jessie.
- Bard College. (n.d.). Jessie Montgomery.
- Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. (n.d.). Jessie Montgomery.
- International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. (n.d.). Jessie Montgomery.
- Wikipedia. (n.d.). Jessie Montgomery.
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.