Composed 2014; 10 minutes 

In Color is a five-movement suite written for tuba and string quartet, commissioned by renowned jazz tuba player Bob Stewart for his record “Connections: MIND-THE-GAP” (Sunnyside Records). The piece is driven by the tuba technique and array of effects and colors that have become part of Stewart’s unique palette, and the pursuit of interesting composite sound colors that this uncommon combination of instruments would make possible. 

In workshops with Third Coast Percussion as part of the process of creating a new percussion quartet work, Montgomery brought excerpts from several pre-existing works, including In Color, as material to experiment with on percussion instruments as a way to explore timbral possibilities and the blending of sonic colors. TCP member Sean Connors was drawn in by In Color in particular, and when Montgomery’s Study No. 1 evolved in a very different direction, Connors asked for the composer’s blessing to arrange three movements of In Color for percussion quartet.

Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Chicago Sinfonietta. In May 2021, she began her three-year appointment as the Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st century American sound and experience.