Program Note

The inspiration for this work came from the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic where I experienced a period of uncertainty regarding who I wanted to be as a person, what I wanted my life to look like, and who or what I desired it centered upon. Amidst this untimely circumstance of self-exploration I also randomly chose to compose a new work for concert band, which in hindsight served inadvertently as a vessel to which I could freely express the innate condition of my wrestling with these doubts.

Concluding with the reconciliation of a greater purpose and strongly rooted faith in God, I now appreciate having this time of maturity chronicled by the early learnings of my compositional craft. Being completely through-composed and seemingly inspired by subconscious effort, this forward-progressing and programmatic piece reflects the beginning stages of my young adult life. Between the somber woodwind harmonies and emphatic march-like crescendo toward victory, my prolonging hope is that anyone struggling with this similar circumstance can resonate with the following work to encourage and find life in even the darkest times.