Lourdes C. Montgomery: Sun and Light, A Frida Kahlo Triptych for unaccompanied double bass

About the Composition

Panel One: The Embrace of Love and the Universe (1949)
Panel Two: Frida and Diego Riviera (1931)
Panel Three: Viva La Vida (1954)

Sun and Light: A Frida Kahlo Triptych is an exciting and engaging new suite of pieces for unaccompanied double bass. The three contrasting movements offer musical and technical challenges in equal measure, with rhythmically charged music which frames a central movement exploring emotions of a more lyrical evocative and sonorous nature. The amazingly evocative paintings of Frida Kahlo have inspired Lourdes C. Montgomery to create music which is instantly attractive, vibrant and inspiring.

Commissioned for 40@40 by David Heyes and funded by Recital Music and Boston-bassist Susan Hagen (Boston Pops Orchestra/Berklee College of Music) - a project to commission forty new pieces for double bass to celebrate Recital Music’s 40th birthday in 2026. The suite is inspired by three paintings by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) producing music which is both colourful and vibrant, exploiting a wide palette of vivid colours and rich textures, contrasting a slow movement which explores the lyrical and sonorous qualities of the double bass.

The outer movements are rhythmically charged and exciting with a strong forward momentum from the first note to the last.

The edition includes versions for both intermediate and advanced bassists.

About the Composer

Born in Havana, Cuba, Lourdes C. Montgomery moved to the United States at age five. She studied jazz piano at Miami-Dade Community College with Sanford Gold and, at the University of Miami, music composition with Dr. Dennis Kam as well as classical piano with Dr. Rosalina Sackstein. Many of Lourdes' sacred and liturgical compositions are published by Oregon Catholic Press, who also produced her CD entitled "De La Cruz a la Gloria", and World Library Publications.

In 2008, Lourdes was honored to have her song Bienaventurados ("The Beatitudes") was performed at the mass of Pope Benedict XVI that was held at the National Stadium in Washington, D.C., and televised nationally. In 2005 Lourdes became music director at St. Vincent de Paul Church in the Ozark Mountains of NW Arkansas, where she now lives with her double bassist husband Michael Montgomery.