AvalancHe

In 2021, my junior year of high school, I wrote a chamber piece for piano, alphorn, and vibraphone titled Avalanche. Being an inexperienced and curious composer, I asked Ann Ellsworth, the horn professor at Lawrence University for feedback on the alphorn part. One incredible lesson later, I applied to and attended Lawrence to join her studio. I began rewriting Avalanche as a piano concerto in early 2025, trying to stay faithful to the piece’s original ideas and motives. At the time, I didn’t give much thought to the piece’s meaning beyond creating a fun atmospheric portrayal of a mountain undergoing a landslide. The project gained new meaning when my mom was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma the following summer.

Needless to say, I was devastated and still grapple with existential rumination and the mortality of my loved ones to this day. Searching for some way to process these feelings, I turn to music. Since the harrowing circumstances of that summer, Avalanche became a story of perseverance; life throws rocks of all sizes at you. If we’re lucky it’s a pebble of inconvenience. Other times, it’s a cancer landslide. When you get sent tumbling down, it’s tempting to give up and flee. Yet I must try to claw my way up again. Avalanche is dedicated to my mom, Ann, and the countless others who make the mountain worth climbing.

Special thanks to conductor Kat Green, soloist Kyle Roberts, and videographer Cassidy Anderson.