Today’s Beautiful Music features Margaret Bonds — her music and her life. This live concert performance by the Amherst Symphony Orchestra of her 1964 composition, MONTGOMERY VARIATIONS is preceded by an introduction to Margaret Bonds’ life. Born in 1913 in Chicago, the composer, pianist, and teacher’s works often drew on African-American spirituals.. She also took inspiration from her friend and collaborator, African-American poet and writer Langston Hughes. In 1933, Margaret Bonds was the first black guest soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony. Her MONTGOMERY VARIATIONS for orchestra is a set of variations on the spiritual “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me.”