⬅️ Back to Compositions

In 2020 Barbara Turner, the director of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, commissioned me to write a piece expressing my personal response to the ‘horrible, no good, very bad’ Covid year of 2020. Premiered in 2022, Refuge expresses my anxiety and dismay in response to millions sickened or killed by Covid, economic devastation, and the shutdown of the performing arts. Refuge also conveys hope for better times, for recovery, for a ‘refuge’ from all the isolation and devastation.

At the heart of Refuge is Martin Luther’s penitential hymn, ‘From deep affliction I cry to thee,’ written 500 years ago but so very timely and relevant for the bleak Covid year! Luther’s hymn is a paraphrase of Psalm 130, which begins in ‘deep affliction’ but ends with hope for forgiveness and restoration.