LUX unfolds within a dreamlike space: vast, ornate, and resonant, like an imagined cathedral. At its center is a solitary spirit, suspended within the architecture and surrounded by voices that seem detached from one another and from the space they inhabit. The listener occupies the perspective of that spirit.

As the piece develops, the scattered voices begin to gather. Fragments align, textures thicken, and what first appears isolated gradually becomes communal. The music rises toward an increasingly forceful and luminous chorus, but that ascent does not lead to transcendence. At its height, the accumulated sound is overtaken by dissonance, and the space collapses into violence, darkness, and ruin.

LUX is therefore both an ascent toward light and a descent into annihilation: a vision of unity briefly achieved, then consumed by its own intensity.

I wrote LUX during my final year at the Curtis Institute of Music, where I had the extraordinary privilege of writing for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra throughout my studies. It was, in many respects, an orchestra of soloists: young musicians of exceptional ability, individuality, and ambition. Knowing the level of playing available to me encouraged me to write with greater scale, detail, and risk, and the piece reflects both that freedom and the intensity of the environment in which it was created.

Written in 2008, LUX was premiered by Teddy Abrams and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. After receiving the Marilyn K. Glick Young Composer Award, a revised version was premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 2009.

—SC