Sanctuary of Innocence (2026)

Sanctuary of Innocence is a ten-minute tone poem written in memory of those lost in the tragic shooting at the Church of Annunciation in Minnesota in 2025, and in dedication to all who have suffered similar acts of violence in places meant to be safe, sacred, and life-giving. The music begins in a place of gentle stillness, unfolding with warmth and quiet light. Familiar gestures and delicate texture emerge slowly, meant to reflect innocence, faith and a sense of sanctuary that existed before it was irrevocably changed.

At the center of the work, I draw upon the welsh tune “The Ash Grove” because of its deep association with loss, mourning, and reflection. The song was later adapted by christians and renamed “Let All Things Now Living,” sung as a popular song during Thanksgiving with similarthemes in the lyrics. The tune initially seems fragile and exposed and becomes increasingly unsettled - pulled apart by darker, untraditional harmonies, growing dissonance and a sense of instability. The disruption represents grief intruding on something once trusted, bending the music away from its center and leaving it searching for the ground.

In the aftermath, sound recedes into a fragile solitude. Sparse scoring and exposed solo voices reflect a sense and grief, with the rainstick becoming a gesture of mourning and compassion. From the hollow silence, the music slowly gathers resolve with a chorale rising as harmony returns and light breaks through the weight of loss. The final fanfare serves as both an offering of praise and as a celebration of the legacies left behind by those who have departed this earth - no matter how young or how old. I chose to end this piece in this fashion not to erase this grief, rather to lift it upward, affirming that remembrance, faith and light endure. The piece concludes on the belief that even in profound loss, compassion and hope continue forward, carrier in honor of the lives taken too soon.