South African cellist Abel Selaocoe joins the Oregon Symphony for the West Coast premiere of "These Righteous Paths" at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4.

The cello concerto, by Grammy-winning composer Jessie Montgomery, draws on poetry by Montgomery's late mother, Robbie McCauley. McCauley was a playwright and leading figure in the Black theatre movement who died in 2021. The Oregon Symphony is one of 10 orchestras worldwide that co-commissioned the work.

Montgomery told Oregon ArtsWatch she met Selaocoe at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival in Norway, where they played chamber music together. Selaocoe later received a residency with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, and the orchestra tapped Montgomery to write a commissioned work. She began composing in early 2025.

The result is a three-movement concerto whose titles come from McCauley's poems: "All the Ancestors and I," "Another Train Poem" and "A New Song." The second movement draws on McCauley's childhood memories of riding trains to Georgia with her sister in the 1940s. In the final movement, Selaocoe sings and recites McCauley's text directly.

Selaocoe improvises in the first two movements, using words inspired by the poetry in what Montgomery described as "like prayer words, like incantations." Each performance is different.

Selaocoe, who grew up in Sebokeng, a township in South Africa, and now lives in Manchester, England, combines cello with singing, improvisation and body percussion. He won the Royal Philharmonic Society's Instrumentalist Award in 2023 and serves as artistic partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Montgomery, a violinist and doctoral candidate at Princeton University, won the 2024 Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her work "Rounds." She is the Curtis Institute of Music's composer in residence for the 2025-26 season and was named Performance Today's 2025 Classical Woman of the Year.

Since its world premiere in March in Berlin, "These Righteous Paths" has traveled to orchestras in Brussels, Wrocław, Toronto and New York. The U.S. premiere took place at Lincoln Center on July 31. The BBC Philharmonic performed it at the BBC Proms on July 20.

"It's always a surprise to audiences when Abel starts singing in the middle of the first movement, but the response has been very positive, especially by those who are reflecting on their own loves and loss," Montgomery told Playbill in July, ahead of the Lincoln Center premiere.

The Portland program also includes Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Glinka's Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmilla." Concert length is about one hour and 37 minutes with one intermission. The Oregon Symphony performs the same program on Friday, Oct. 2, at Rose Auditorium in Salem. Tickets are available at orsymphony.org.

After Portland, the concerto travels to the Utah Symphony and the NTR ZaterdagMatinee in the Netherlands.