WINNER OF THE 2018 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA CALL FOR SCORES

READING SESSIONS

December 19, 2019 | Chicagoland Educator Orchestra (Bryan Miller, conductor) | The Midwest Clinic New Music Reading Sessions (2019), McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois
October 29, 2018 | New York University Orchestra (Jonathan Haas, conductor) | Manhattan, New York

ADDITIONAL VERSIONS AVAILABLE

CONCERT BAND

Change is always imminent in nature as time inevitably marches on. Whether it happens gradually, or suddenly without warning (for better or worse), this is something that is naturally understood. Change can sometimes be influenced to happen sooner or later, even though change in and of itself is something which can't be controlled when it eventually occurs.

Related to this, I have always had what I believe to be a deep connection to nature, something which is often not possible to express in words alone. I became aware of this growing up in the Michigan rural areas, and even more so when recently visiting places such as a few of the national parks in the United States. We can physically and spiritually see the duality present in nature all of the time, often when light and dark are in conflict with each other. We see it through violent times and peaceful ones; unrest and serenity; violent storms and calm, sunny days; and so on. These ideas of conflicting forces interest me, especially in how they can ultimately bring balance to nature in the end.

This piece was written as a testament to these ideas, a pure and instinctual gut reaction to the spirituality I believe music can contain, especially when it is on an emotional level. There is no specific program or narrative that came to mind; it instead explores the balance that I believe nature itself contains, including when change occurs over time. In the end, I yearned to write something that was much more simplistic than my previous works, but what I hope still represents the best of my own musical voice, and what I hope will be beautiful to listeners all the same.