Duration: 7 minutes
Instrumentation: treble choir, piano, and string orchestra
Program note: Commissioned by Ashley Hall School for their 110th anniversary celebration. Text by poet Nick Bozanix
A DREAM IS ALL IT IS
the secret source of everything you are
that guides you on your way like the northern star,
a light that you and you alone can see
that shines upon the you you’ll one day be.
Though others doubt or fail to understand,
be faithful to it as a tree is to the land,
and keep your eyes wide open as you go,
unsleeping as the river’s ceaseless flow.
A dream is all it is, the end of all desire;
feed it with your hours as you would feed a fire,
so that it burns more brightly every day
and warms the world around you on your way.
With a dream, what’s broken you can repair.
With a dream, for what’s unknown you can prepare.
Oh, a dream is all it is, this world so fair –
and all the will you’ll need to dare to care.
Concert Premiere: April 2019