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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) is revered as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, having brought the style of the Classical period (1750-1820) to its culmination. He grew up in Austria as a renowned child prodigy, and composed over 800 works in his short life. The Requiem, composed while he lay dying, is perhaps his most iconic and beloved work, but remains unfinished. Mozart instilled a sense of eternity in the work by borrowing “ancient” musical material, including themes from Handel’s The Ways of Zion do Mourn and the fugue “And with his stripes we are healed” from Handel’s Messiah. Over 20 composers and musicologists have developed alternative completions for the Requiem.

Return to Mozart’s Requiem: A Tapestry

JESSIE MONTGOMERY is an American violinist and composer, named as 2025 Classical Woman of the Year by Performance Today. Her Five Freedom Songs were conceived in 2017-18 in collaboration with soprano Julia Bullock. Montgomery noted that “we wanted to create a song cycle that honors our shared African-American heritage and the tradition of the Negro spiritual, while also experimenting with non-traditional stylistic contexts.” The songs in this cycle are sourced from the historical anthology Slave Songs of the United States, published in 1867.

Return to Mozart’s Requiem: A Tapestry

ERIC GOULD serves on the faculty of the Berklee School of Music and formerly taught at Oberlin Conservatory. He describes his 1791: Requiem for the Ancestors as “a piece about empathy (and lack thereof).” Apollo’s Fire commissioned this work in 2024, and will premiere two movements of it in these concerts. The lyrics include poetry by Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved 18th-c. African poet who was 19 at the time of writing these verses. “By telling stories that too few are willing to tell, we free ourselves from the burden of silence,” says Gould.

Return to Mozart’s Requiem: A Tapestry

DAMIEN GETER is an acclaimed young composer who infuses classical music with styles from the Black diaspora. His “invigoratingly fresh” (Opera Today) body of work includes operas, chamber, and orchestral works. His African American Requiem received its East Coast premiere at the Kennedy Center in 2022. Geter said he composed it in 2017-2018 as a musical response to police violence against Black Americans, and modeled it on Verdi’s Requiem.

Return to Mozart’s Requiem: A Tapestry