*1st Place in the 2023 ACDA @ UIUC Choral Composition Contest*

This piece is written as if looking into the eyes of a loved one living with dementia. A string quartet crackles through the radio, a record they recall their parents playing as a child. For a brief moment, the person you’ve always known is once again sitting in front of you. They don’t say much, but the beauty and joy in the way the corners of their mouth turn up says it all. Their eyes sparkle with the memory of their childhood home, a farmhouse surrounded by fields of tall grass, bathed in afternoon sunlight.

They say eyes are the windows to the soul – but on this side of the glass, all is quiet.