Mosaic

Mosaic was written for a fantastic friend, musician, colleague, and person; Steven Fireman. Having known each other since we were in middle school and running into each other at least once a year through honor bands and other music events, it's been an absolutely wonderful opportunity to get to know him because of the community that music gave to the both of us. That being said, community, journey, highs and lows, growth, joy, and life are all integral and core to the piece's message. In my phone calls with Steven to discuss the piece, and learn what he had envisioned, he had mentioned something very profound that I could not help but latch on to. His view is that people are a mosaic of the important people in their lives and all of the experiences they have had, whether public or private, all culminating in the person you interact with, and that is something that sat with me. Life is full of so many life-defining relationships and choices, big and small and all of these add up to a wonderful mosaic in every human being. Finding love and joy and cherishing all the moments of your life, good or bad, is a key to happiness because it has helped lead to who you are. Celebrating that beautiful realization is what I hope to express through this piece. Through the fragmented melodies eventually aligning, changing landscape of tonal centers, a dip into the dark and serious but just important moments, all culminating with a sense of hope and perseverance in a strong finale presenting the melody one last time.