Near the Finish Line
Program Notes:
I have always stayed away from compositions that have dealt with national tragedies with the knowledge that nothing I write will cover the gravity of events like 9/11. So it is a bit of an anomaly that I wrote this work to remember the tragic bombings that took place at the Boston Marathon in 2013. This attack hit me in a very direct way because it occurred at a time that I had begun to get involved with endurance sports. Events like the Boston Marathon are ones that people spend years training for and theydo it from a place of love for long distance sport. Two men then decided they would try to rob those participants of this love. This piece is not just a memorial work but it is meant to be a reminder of the evil some are capable of and the power of endurance and perseverance found in so many of us.