Elliott Forrest: Live from the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. I'm Elliott Forrest from WQXR 105.9 FM, New York's classical music station. We're so happy to bring you this concert tonight from Central Park with the chamber ensemble the Knights.

So great to have this live audience. We weren't sure about the weather. We're gonna really power through. WQXR has been proud to bring these concerts for several years now. And this summer we're celebrating a hundredth anniversary of this beautiful historic Naumburg Bandshell.

When the Bandshell opened in, uh, 1923, Elkan Naumburg presented it to the city of New York and its music lovers, as it says. And we're thrilled to be able to share this performance live on the radio with the city of New York, as well as people around the world. Tonight's concert features the Knights, a chamber group born out of musical camaraderie, and as we've been told, late night sight reading parties and they've been a part of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts for 14 seasons now.

On the program, uh, there are premieres by three New York composers. And here to tell us a little bit more about the world premier that we're gonna start our concert with, please welcome Associate Conductor Michael Atkinson.

Michael Atkinson: Thank you Elliott. Um, if you've been to our concerts before, our normal conductor, uh, brother and musical colleague Eric Jacobsen, had to withdraw from this performance from illness. We wish him well. He's doing fine. We'll see him again soon. So I have stepped in as of this morning to take care of, uh, presenting this concert for you all.

Um, I just wanna say a few words about the first piece on the program, which is called Bethesda Bliss by Colin Jacobsen. And, um, really, we've played, as Elliott said, 14 years here at the beautiful bandshell, and for as long as I've been a member of the Knights, it's a highlight of every season to come here to play for an incredible crowd and to share this music freely in the beautiful space and refuge that is Central Park.

And this piece is written as a fanfare to celebrate that feeling that we all have as Knights when we play here every year, but also the hundredth anniversary of this series and the generosity, and we would also like to dedicate this piece directly to Christopher and for all of his efforts that he has put in over the years to put this program on year after year to refurbish the bandshell and the tireless efforts that go on behind the scene that we don't even know about. So, uh, first piece on the program Bethesda Bliss by Colin Jacobsen. Thank you.

Music- Bethesda Bliss (2023) by Colin Jacobsen (b. 1978)

Elliott Forrest: The world premiere of Bethesda Bliss by Colin Jacobsen, the opening fanfare for tonight's concert live from the Naumburg Bandshell on WQXR. Coming up next, uh, is a New York premiere by composer Jessie Montgomery. It's a piece for solo viola and orchestra. The soloist tonight will be Masumi Per Rostad, who the New York Times called an electrifying, poetic, and sensitive musician.

In a moment, we will hear com, uh, conductor Michael Atkinson and Jessie Montgomery talk about this work.

Michael Atkinson: Hello again. Okay, we are back. Hi, um, ladies and gentlemen, this is Jessie Montgomery,

Longtime friend of the Knights. Composer in residence at the Chicago Symphony and one of the most original and beautiful voices composing today. We are privileged to have two of her works on tonight's program, and I wondered if you would share for us some of your thoughts on those.

Jessie Montgomery: Sure. Uh, thank you so much. Um, it's really a treat to be here, um, with The Knights and I've just such a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the kind of musicianship that you guys, um, bring forth, and it's a real treat to have my pieces played by you. Um, the first piece you're gonna hear tonight of mine is, um, this is a, a New York premiere of Lower East Side Characters.

Um, I grew up in the Lower East Side, um, with Masumi actually. We went to music school together and our chamber music coach is here, and also the former executive director of our, uh, program, Barbara Field, Mary Jo Pagano. And, so, uh, we have a nice, um, yes. Yay. Um, we, um, we grew up together in the Lower East Side and went to Third Street Music School, um, and experienced, uh, a shared, uh, this shared experience of being, growing up in the Lower East Side in the eighties and nineties, where there were, uh, a lot of street artists. Um, people that would do, um, you know, these, these performances just, just for the sake of the sort of aesthetic of the neighborhood.

Um, and this piece, um, Lower East Side Characters is based on different, um, performers and artists from the, from our, basically from the view of a child's memory. So we kind of got together and we're thinking what are some of the people that we remember? Um, and the main one that stuck out for me was, um, a man named Gene Pool Harding, um, who now currently lives in Chicago, actually, ironically.

Um, and he used to ride around on a unicycle, dressed up in a full suit of aluminum, aluminum cans. I wonder if there might be some people here who might remember him. Um, and if you can imagine the spectacle from a child's imagination, what that, what that would've, um, what that evoked, um, in the imagination.

Um, and so that, that, that movement and that image bookends this five movement piece. The, and, and then each subsequent movement is based on another sort of idea of an artist or an actual piece of art. Um, so the second, the poet was based really, um, on the idea, uh, uh, of the way that people, um, would gather and, um, tell stories, um, and sort of teach through poetry and gathering.

Um, and then followed by that the mosaic man. For anyone who's spent time in the East Village, you see the beautiful mosaics on the, uh, street lamps and around St. Mark's and et cetera. Um, uh, he, he used to go around and take, uh, debris and make them into these beautiful, um, images. Um, and then garbage art, um, is also similarly, uh, there were these sculpture gardens that were made out of literal garbage. Um, and actually one of the instruments in the band is an actual garbage can. You can't see it in the back, in the percussion section. Um, but it's a, uh, a special instrument that we made to sort of evoke and support that idea. Um, so this piece is very evocative of all of those, um, images.

Michael Atkinson: I've heard that the name of the garbage can instrument is Oscar.

Jessie Montgomery: Ah, yes. And then Source Code, very, very different, um, is based on the sort of impulse, um, and feeling of a black spiritual, um, not necessarily one that you might know, but it's sort of, um, derived from, um, a sort of an imaginary spiritual that I made up.

Um, and is sort of played as a, as a meditation, you, you would say on that idea. Um, so you'll hear that later in the program.

Michael Atkinson: It's fascinating to me. We did another piece of yours, um, a couple years ago. It was, uh, Scenes From a Vanishing City.

Jessie Montgomery: Yes.

Michael Atkinson: And I, um, I'm just fascinated how you document. All of these individuals and things that really are disappearing from what New York is becoming. And, um, I just think it's really special. I can't think of anything like it I've heard in music, but, uh, one thing that really stuck with me from that piece was toward the end, you documented a lullaby that is sung by some neighbors that you heard and...

Jessie Montgomery: Mm-hmm.

Michael Atkinson: I get choked up thinking about it. It's just so beautiful. And the, I just think it's a beautiful thing to document all these things as they contribute to our humanity and that we can remember them.

Jessie Montgomery: Mm-hmm.

Michael Atkinson: For as long as music is performed. And, um, are there other pieces or is this, is this, is this a project that you have kind of through music or is it just come to you as it inspires or...

Jessie Montgomery: I think it's a, it's a through line for sure.

Michael Atkinson: Yeah.

Jessie Montgomery: This idea of childhood in a way, and memory and nostalgia, um, it runs deeply, I think, through my music. Yeah.

Michael Atkinson: Oh, it's amazing. Great. Well, thank you Jessie Montgomery.

Jessie Montgomery: Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Elliott Forrest: Composer Jessie Montgomery talking about the work we're about to hear Lower East Side Characters featuring Masumi Per Rostad playing the viola, the five movements: The Can Man, The Poet, Mosaic Man, Garbage Art, and The Can Man Reprised. This is The Knights conducted by Michael Atkinson. We are live in Central Park from the Naumburg Bandshell on WQXR.

 Music - Lower East Side Characters (2021) by Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)

Elliott Forrest: The New York City Premier of Lower East Side Characters by Jessie Montgomery, played by The Knights with Violist Masumi Per Rostad, conducted by Michael Atkinson with The Knights Live from the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park in the heart of New York City. The work was in five movements. The Can Man, The Poet, Mosaic Man, The Garbage Art, and The Can Man Reprise. Composer Jessie Montgomery is on the stage at this point here in Central Park here on the Naumburg Bandshell, celebrating a hundred years this year.

Taking about, along with Jessie is violist Masumi Per Rostad, uh, Japanese-Norwegian violist, uh, grew up in the East Village, went to the Third Street Music School, and a longtime friend of composer, Jessie Montgomery. This is listener supported Classical New York, 105.9 fm and HD WQXR, Newark and 90.3 FM WQXW Ossining.

It's intermission here in Central Park. And, uh, this is the second of five broadcasts. We'll be bringing you this summer from the Naumburg Orchestral concerts. You can learn about these events and much more by signing up for our WQXR newsletter by texting WQXR to 70101. That's to WQXR to um, 70101.

While the orchestra takes a little bit of a break, we'll be speaking with viola soloist Masumi Per Rostad. But joining me first is the composer of the work we just heard, Jessie Montgomery. Uh, welcome.

Jessie Montgomery: Hi, Elliott.

Elliott Forrest: Thank you so much for stopping by.

Jessie Montgomery: Yes, of course.

Elliott Forrest: What is that like for you to be here in Central Park and hear this work?

Jessie Montgomery: Well, it's amazing because the, the piece itself is so New York centric and so I was, um, just really, you know, thrilled to have it played for a New York audience and discuss all those references that are in the piece and then have people. Like respond in, in, you know, support and knowing, you know, with their own experiences with those, maybe some of those artists that are represented in the piece, so.

Elliott Forrest: Right. You touched on it before the concert. We heard you talk about 'em and, uh, being that the word characters, is it all people or is...

Jessie Montgomery: Is it all people? Uh, no, it's not all it's, it's some people and some just images. Like Yeah. Remembered images. Yeah. Yeah.

Elliott Forrest: And, uh, you know, you had said one of them, which was, uh, called the, uh, or the one is called Garbage Art.

Jessie Montgomery: Yes.

Elliott Forrest: And so tell me, we heard some big banging.

Jessie Montgomery: Yeah.

Elliott Forrest: Tell, tell us a little bit more about what we actually heard.

Jessie Montgomery: So, yeah, in that one in particular, that came from when I was, uh, a kid. I, you know, growing up in the Lower East Side, and there was a lot of these, um, you know, there was this big sculpture on Avenue B that was in the, the, the Avenue, Avenue B Gardens between Fifth and Sixth.

Um, this piece that, um, kept being built on. Um, and I, um, unfortunately don't remember the, the man's name, but he was a known figure in the neighborhood. Um, and he would just pick up people's garbage and like add it to this sculpture that ended up being, um, it was like a record breaking height, like of a piece of, like basically a piece of art of that kind that was like just debris essentially.

Um, eventually it got torn down, but there was something beautiful about it, you know, about him sort of reappropriating these pieces of like junk into this, um, really elaborate statue. And so this idea of like junk turning into something beautiful, um, but I wanted the, like, junk part to be like really obvious.

Um, so that's where the banging comes from that.

Elliott Forrest: And, uh, did we, it was named Oscar, did we hear?

Jessie Montgomery: Yeah, yeah. The, the band named the instrument Oscar, which is great. It's literally a tin, uh, garbage can. So, yeah.

Elliott Forrest: And, and your process, you have these images, uh, from childhood you have these, uh, things that you remember and turning that into music is, some of it literal, some of it, your feelings? What, what would you, would you describe that?

Jessie Montgomery: Yeah. Some of is very literal, as in the, the garbage art image. And some of it is like the memory and the awe of, I think some of these, this art and sort of being in that environment and the feeling of, of wonder, you know, that that comes through a child's imagination. Um, yeah.

Elliott Forrest: We're gonna hear from, um, Masumi in just a moment. Uh, tell us how long you have actually known this viola player.

Jessie Montgomery: Um, I have known Masumi, um, well since I was maybe four or five years old, so.

Elliott Forrest: He's joining us now at the microphone. Beautiful performance there. That was really lovely.

Masumi Per Rostad: So, so much fun to play tonight.

Elliott Forrest: So, and you've been, tell us about your relationship. How long have you known each other?

Masumi Per Rostad: I mean, too many decades to count, right?

Jessie Montgomery: Too many decades. Yeah.

Elliott Forrest: Too many decades. Yeah. Did you write this piece for Masumi?

Jessie Montgomery: Yes. I wrote the piece for Masumi. Masumi approached me about, about writing a, him a piece about, I don't know, three, four years ago. Five years?

Masumi Per Rostad: Five years. Four to five years ago. Yeah.

Jessie Montgomery: Yeah. Um, and yeah. And so it just, like, I was...

Masumi Per Rostad: I was like, Jessie, would you please write me a concerto? And she's like, what? Yeah, sure. And I was like, what? Really? Did you just say yes?

Jessie Montgomery: I can't say no to Masumi. I mean, it's like, you know, you get the cred of, uh, history. Right? Um, but yeah, it was, um, so immediately it was like, well, what, what, what would be a fun way? And also thinking about the viola and sort of its role in this piece as the sort of, it, it sort of embodies the, it's like the, the transmits the voice of these artists, I think as the leader of the sort of, of the, it's a very orchestrally rich piece.

Masumi Per Rostad: Yeah.

Jessie Montgomery: But the viola then takes this role of like being the, the teller. Uh, of these, of these stories.

Masumi Per Rostad: Yeah.

Elliott Forrest: And when you first saw this piece, Masumi, uh, I mean, it's not in, doesn't have to be in any traditional form. It's in five movements. They're shorter pieces. There are these very, uh, rich, uh, descriptions of these, uh, pictures in these images from her life. What did you think when you first saw the work?

Masumi Per Rostad: Well, even before I, I first saw it, Jessie would send me these little snippets of, of like her kind of practicing things out and like experimenting and improvising right on, on, on the violin.

Jessie Montgomery: Mm-hmm.

Masumi Per Rostad: And, and kind of saying like, a little bit of this vibe and, and kind of like, so it was like these little, um, kind of, um, ideas of what would kind of then come into for, uh, full formation later.

And so, um, and then all of a sudden, like, it just kind of happened and I was like, whoa, look at this piece. Incredible. It's fantastic.

Elliott Forrest: And there must be some kind of like even common language and just the, the fact that you've known each other for so long, you can just sort of like work together in a way that would be quite different if you didn't know each other.

Jessie Montgomery: Yeah. Yeah.

Masumi Per Rostad: Yeah. I mean we also had, we had this, this teacher, Alice Kanack.

Jessie Montgomery: Mm-hmm.

Masumi Per Rostad: And we did this thing called Creative Ability Development. Mm-hmm. Where as like 12 year olds, we would walk around in a circle and she'd call out like D mixolydian and we'd all have to like, like play D mixolydian. And then she'd be like, Jessie in the center! And she, Jessie would like, have to improvise a solo and we'd all be like, vamping and walking in circle around her.

Jessie Montgomery: Yeah.

Masumi Per Rostad: So it's like this kind of crazy stuff that, that was like, yeah.

Jessie Montgomery: That we were, yeah. We were both kind of learning this interesting improvisatory technique as kids together. And so I think that very much played into the, like, playfulness of this piece.

Masumi Per Rostad: Mm-hmm.

Jessie Montgomery: And um, and also there's very, there are passages that are like fully improvised by the orchestra actually, where, where actually Masumi's part is very straight actually, but then the orchestra's kind of doing their version of like the circle game or something like, yeah.

Masumi Per Rostad: Yeah.

Elliott Forrest: What's coming up for you, Masumi?

Masumi Per Rostad: Uh, a summer full of festivals, Bridgehampton, La Jolla, Napa, uh, just Ascent. Yeah. Just. And then I go back to school. I, I teach at Eastman in Rochester, New York.

Elliott Forrest: Back to school at some point.

Masumi Per Rostad: Yeah.

Elliott Forrest: And Jessie, this has been, I, it seems like from the outside, quite a year for you.

Jessie Montgomery: Yes.

Elliott Forrest: I mean, uh, the last time we saw each other, you know, full disclosure, I'm on the board of the New York Youth Symphony and the, uh, the piece that, yeah, the piece that you recorded, that we recorded of yours, you know, won the orchestra a Grammy. Where were you when the Grammy announcement came out?

Jessie Montgomery: Um, I was at home.

Elliott Forrest: You were at home?

Jessie Montgomery: In my apartment watching. Yeah. It was great. It was really, really an awesome thing to take, to take part in that project and yeah, have like even more like continue to like deepen my relationship to New York City and, um, and especially through youth programs.

Elliott Forrest: Right.

Jessie Montgomery: Yeah.

Elliott Forrest: And, um, the video of the kids in the New York Youth Symphony has kind of gone viral when they were watching the Grammys and it just erupted.

Jessie Montgomery: Yes.

Elliott Forrest: That must have been very...

Jessie Montgomery: I saw that. That was really beautiful.

Elliott Forrest: Really great. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna let you guys do what you need to do. This is intermission time. Jessie Montgomery, Masumi Per Rostad. Thank you so much for stopping by.

Masumi Per Rostad: Thank you!

Jessie Montgomery: Thank you.

Elliott Forrest: Beautiful performance tonight.

Jessie Montgomery: Thanks.

Elliott Forrest: It's intermission here in Central Park at the Naumburg Bandshell. We're live in the park tonight, and if you're in the neighborhood, there's still time to come by as long as it doesn't rain and the weather holds out. Still to come, another piece by Jessie Montgomery. But before that, let's hear a bit of Mozart. Here's the Divertimento in F performed by the Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry.

Music- Divertimento in F Major, K. 138 (1772) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Elliott Forrest: Welcome back to the second half of this concert with The Knights here in Central Park. I'm Elliott Forrest from WQXR. We're here at the Naumburg Bandshell. We're broadcasting all of the Naumburg concerts this summer. Uh, the next one again, July 11th. It's a group called A Far Cry. They're great. You're gonna love them.

You can find the full schedule at NaumburgConcerts.org. We're gonna start the second half of the concert with Béla Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances. Bartók traveled widely and collected folk songs from communities in Hungary and Romania. This piece originally for piano is based on, uh, fiddle dance tunes from Transylvania, including a polka.

And because of all these pieces are originally dance tunes, uh, you know, feel free to dance. Live from the Naumburg Bandshell, please welcome back The Knights!

Music- Romanian Folk Dances, (1915-17) by Béla Bartók (1881-1945), arr. Alex Fortes

Elliott Forrest: Music of Béla Bartók. A set of Romanian folk dances played by The Knights, conducted by Michael Atkinson. Live from the Naumburg Bandshell, celebrating 100 years here in Central Park. Next up is another Jessie Montgomery piece called Source Code. It's a one movement work that melds a lot of different influences from African American artists like Alvin Ailey, Langston Hughes, Ella Fitzgerald, just to name a few, but it also pulls heavily from the black spiritual tradition as well, which Montgomery calls a major part of the DNA of American folk music.

Jessie comes from an artistic family, her mom, a playwright, and her father is a composer as well. We will now hear Source Code by Jessie Montgomery, played by The Knights Live from Central Park on WQXR.

The Source Code by Jessie Montgomery, played by The Knights, and conducted by Michael Atkinson. Live from Central Park on WQXR. I'm Elliott Forrest. It is June 27th, 2023. We are live in Central Park with a broadcast of these concerts from the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, celebrating a hundred years, uh, of this beautiful bandshell.

Michael Atkinson: We made it, we beat the rain. Let's give ourselves a round of applause for that.

Yes, indeed. So the last piece we have for you is the Romanian Rhapsody by Enescu, arranged by the magnificent Ljova who is in the house or in the park tonight with us. Yes. And, uh, just a note of, uh, real honest thanks to all of you for coming out and sharing this evening with us, and for those of you that have been here year after year, thank you.

And thank you especially to Christopher for his support of The Knights since the very beginning and giving us a home here that we, we look forward to coming to every single year. So thank you, Christopher. Thank you Naumburg. Thank you WQXR, and we hope you enjoy this last one. Have a great evening.

Elliott Forrest: Associate Conductor Michael Atkinson with the Knights performing the music of George Enescu. This is the Romanian Rhapsody number one on WQXR. The next concert coming up in this series is on July 11th. It'll be a group called The Far Cry, then July 25th Nosky's Baroque Band. And we'll wrap up the season on August 1st with ECCO with live concerts from Central Park.

Music- Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 in A major, Op.11 (1901) by George Enescu (1881-1955), arr. Ljova

Elliott Forrest: One of the great things about New York City, a free live concert in the park. That was the music of George Enescu, the Romanian Rhapsody number one, played by The Knights, conducted by Michael Atkinson. Live from the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. We'll be back here at Central Park for another concert of the Naumburg Orchestral Concert series on Tuesday, July 11th for a concert featuring a group called A Far Cry.

You can learn about these events and much more by signing up for our WQXR newsletter. Simply text WQXR to 70101. That's texting WQXR to 70101. A great thanks to Christopher London, president of the Naumburg Orchestral Society and his staff, including stage manager extraordinaire Patty Dines.

Also thanks to L&M Sound and Light and our friends at Summer stage. The WQXR team includes our brilliant engineers, George Wellington, Noriko Okabe, Duke Marcos, and Bill Sigmund, our production team, Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Laura Boyman, Max Fine, and Christine Herskovits. I'm Elliott Forrest, and I'll send it back to our downtown studio with my friend and colleague, Paul Cavalconte.

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