By Andra Moss

On Saturday, July 27, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival presents an evening focused on America’s current generation of renowned composers. It features Jessie Montgomery and Valerie Coleman and will include the world premiere of a new work composed by Vijay Iyer. This is the fourth piece presented by the Musical Bridges initiative, whose goal is to commission new works that place classical chamber music within a broader musical and cultural context. 

A genre-stretching jazz artist and broad musical collaborator, Iyer also composes for classical ensembles and soloists. He has been honored with numerous awards, including a 2013 MacArthur “genius” fellowship. That selection committee described him as “an ardent investigator of musical communities, practices, histories and theories.” The New Yorker magazine has identified Iyer as “[one of] today’s most important pianists … extravagantly gifted … brilliantly eclectic.”

Musical Bridges is supported by the Desai Family Foundation, and its inspiration was a conversation between Ian Desai and his partner, JanaLee Cherneski, following many summers enjoying Norfolk’s chamber music festival together. Desai, a son of Norfolk residents Rohit and Kay Desai, grew up attending the summer festival. Cherneski, a musician and composer earlier in her life, instantly appreciated the festival’s desire to offer chamber music of the highest caliber to the widest possible audience. They pondered ways to support this mission. 

“We were sitting in the Music Shed, thinking about all the experiences we have shared there,” recalls Desai, “and the conversation turned to ‘What are the boundaries of this tradition, and how can it be expanded? How could this become an even more dynamic space?’” 

The pair explored these ideas further with festival director Melvin Chen. Says Cherneski, “We sat with Melvin at the Berkshire Store and asked, ‘How can we enhance this amazing thing that has been here for years?’” She remembers their conversation flowing toward “ways to bring more of the world into the music hall—audience, repertoire, context.” 

The idea quickly grew. Chen selected the name Musical Bridges to represent the connection of diverse communities and individuals through the commission of dynamic new works that could spark discussion and exploration. 

“Melvin then did the outreach to artists,” says Desai. “Our job was to catalyze and then celebrate his work.” 

Musical Bridges launched in 2021 during the pandemic. Its first commission was a concerto by Black Haitian American composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. The piece is a reflection on the killing of Philando Castile during a 2016 Minnesota police traffic stop.

In 2022, Angel Lam, a previous Norfolk composer-in-residence, explored the theme of shared humanity in the world premiere of “The Heart as Deep as the Ocean,” featuring pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Last year, composer Juhi Bansal’s music wove together themes celebrating musical and cultural diversity, nature and the environment and strong female role models. 

Cherneski appreciates that Musical Bridges pieces “push traditional classical music in a new kind of way. Everything from instrumentations and scales can be different.” She emphasizes that the project is centered on “the idea that once a piece has been commissioned, it has a life out in the world. It doesn’t only happen here.”

What began as a three-year experiment to expand the boundaries of classical music tradition is now in its fourth year with plans to continue into the future. Says Desai, “It has exceeded our expectations. It combines the intimacy of chamber music, the intimacy of Norfolk and the reach of the world. That pairing of the intimate and the worldly is the perfect marriage.” 

Chen is in full agreement. “The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival is grateful to the Desai Family Foundation, and Ian and JanaLee in particular, for sponsoring the commissions in the Musical Bridges project,” he says. “I’m thrilled with the resulting commissions, and I think Musical Bridges has and will continue to have an impact, by growing the boundaries and nurturing the connections between classical music and the wider world.”

 Looking ahead, Cherneski and Desai say they hope Musical Bridges continues to inform a dialogue between composer, musician and audience that goes beyond stereotypes of what chamber music is. “To make traditions last, they need to grow and change over time,” says Cherneski. “And that’s what we’re doing. We’re still waiting to see what the next chapter of this experiment is—what other synergies come of it. We’re thrilled that these artistic collaborations have created something for Norfolk that we’re giving out to the world.”

Performances of the first three Musical Bridges commissions can be viewed on the festival’s website and YouTube channel. The public is invited to a free pre-performance conversation between Iyer and Chen on July 27 at 7 p.m. in the Battell Recital Hall. Information and concert tickets are available at music.yale.edu/Norfolk.