(upbeat music) - NOVA Chamber Music Series presents Grammy Award-winning composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery in a concert featuring her chamber works performed by Montgomery herself.

Artistic Director Kimi Kawashima is here to tell us more.

Hi, Kimi.

Welcome.

Well, it's quite a coup to get Jessie Montgomery.

- Yeah, we are beside ourself that we actually are welcoming her to Salt Lake for the weekend.

So she's, yeah, as you said, she's a Grammy Award-winning composer.

She was the composer in residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

She's written a lot of amazing music for strings in particular, so we're so excited that she's actually joining us on stage with some of our musicians for this concert.

- I bet they're excited too.

And didn't she get Composer of the Year for 2023?

- Yes, by Musical America.

And I think most major orchestras in this country are playing her music, including the Utah Symphony, who will feature some of her works the last two weekends of March.

So this is sort of a celebration of Jessie's music.

- Oh, wow.

So tell us a little more about what her music is like.

- Yeah, her background is in classical music, but she grew up with a lot of improvisational sort of methods, and so she encourages her performers to embrace that.

But she also borrows from great composers like Béla Bartók who were also feature featuring on this concert.

So there's a really beautiful mix of folk music as well as African American traditions, and we're just so excited to have her for this concert.

- Yeah, it's great.

And yeah, the Béla Bartók influence is wonderful.

And Utah Symphony musicians will be playing with her?

- Yes.

In particular, we have Laura Ha, who is the associate concert master of the Utah Symphony.

She's gonna be playing these duos with Jessie that were written for two violins called "Musings" that she just wrote a couple of years ago, and it'll be a really fun show.

- Wonderful.

I'm so glad you're bringing her and thank you for being here.

- Thank you.

- And if you'd like to know about that upcoming Nova Chamber Series with Jessie Montgomery, it will be March 9th from 3:00 to 5:00 PM at Libby Gardner Concert Hall.

Just go to novaslc.org.

That's novaslc.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

(upbeat music) - Local events, arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

Here on Contact, we introduce you to local events and organizations that serve your neighborhood.

If you work for a nonprofit and would like to appear on our show, please visit pbsutah.org/contact.