“Music is powerful because it imitates the movements of the soul.”  

- Damon (a music theorist of the 5th century BC and a teacher of Socrates and Pericles.)

End of Life Music Project

I’ve been in correspondence with Kinan Azmeh since just after I graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. During my time there I learned and played one of his pieces. He is a Syrian composer and clarinetist who, among many other things, has written works for Yo-Yo Ma and won a Grammy Award with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.

We have been talking about my work playing cello bedside for people in hospice and he became ‘tremendously’ interested in collaborating with me on a solo cello suite for this type of work.

Just recently, he began work on a suite for solo cello that is going to be music specifically for this situation.

In a recent phone conversation with Mr. Azmeh, he told me: ‘Your project has so much connection with life. It is a very simple concept that nobody thinks about. It is such an obvious...it is moving. To think that someone can do something for somebody in that situation.’

I am now reaching out to other composers who create authentically and are deeply connected with the natural world and humanity through their work. I want to create a body of compositions that will serve to comfort people and families as they navigate death and the transition of dying.

Please reach out to me if you would like to learn more about this project and check out the GoFundMe page here!