“ …create a work built on such profound difficulty, loss, and tragedy while the world, as it always does, turns and turns from one day to the next, each moment radiant with the mundane and the miraculous.”
Each Moment Radiant is a new 45 minute work scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and baritone voices; violin, cello, and piano. An expanded version will include immersive video and field recordings from Lockerbie, Scotland.
“How do we live with the things we cannot change?”
Each Moment Radiant tells the stories of interweaving lives affected by the tragic bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. The work honors loss while celebrating resilience, love, and our capacity to celebrate the precious and ephemeral moments in our daily lives. Thirty-six years after the December 1988 tragedy, it doesn't make much sense to create a work for the living that starts and ends with an overbearing sense of tragedy. Grief survivors need care and space to contemplate both the tragic and the miraculous.
Early on in the process, poet Brian Turner described an approach as one where we would “create a work built on such profound difficulty, loss, and tragedy while the world, as it always does, turns and turns from one day to the next, each moment radiant with the mundane and the miraculous.”
Right then and there, the seeds of the new work were born.
Names of those most closely effected by the tragedy show up in the score as melodies transformed into musical ciphers - I wanted the very DNA of the person’s name embedded in the composition as the ultimate act of care and tribute.
Score Completion: Spring 2024
Premiere Performance: October 20, 2024 at Syracuse University
Instrumentation: Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, and Baritone Soloists; Violin, Cello, and Piano. (An expanded version will include immersive video and field recordings from Lockerbie, Scotland)
Length: 45 minutes, consisting of individual songs and instrumental movements
Libretto: Poet Brian Turner provides poetic meditations drawn from private and public sources, including firsthand accounts from those most closely affected. The work serves as a public memorial, honoring the loss of the victims while also celebrating the resilience and beauty of life.
Commissioning Consortium Partners: Performers, Art Organizations, and Academic Institutions across the globe (TBA during 2025-2026 season)
Lead Commissioner: Syracuse University
LIBRETTO AND PERFORMANCE ELEMENTS
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed in a terrorist attack that shocked the world. Two hundred seventy people died in this unprecedented tragedy, including eleven Lockerbie residents. On board were thirty-five Syracuse University students, returning to the U.S. after a semester abroad.
Loss is personal, and loss is a part of the human condition.
Revisiting a difficult moment can give us the courage to heal those parts of loss and trauma that are unresolved. Loss also teaches us to embrace the radiant moments found in our day-to-day existence.
Terrorism and state sponsored violence are pernicious tools used to inflict pain and terror onto a population.
CONSORTIUM MEMBERS
A wide variety of performing arts organizations, colleges, and civic institutions will have an opportunity to premiere the expanded version of the work during the 2025-2026 season. Additional details will be released soon.
For more information or to join the consortium, please contact us.