Suitcased Dreams is a work for piano and violin that meditates on a moment captured long ago. Looking back to strong memories of my early childhood, this photo shows both my mother and I in a shared moment of difficulty, but with expressions that signify bonding and strength. Many of my large scale works tackle themes that shaped my early childhood – travel, otherness, bridges. This work is no different. My mother and I had just immigrated to the US and it was right before my parents separated.

The fabric of the piece begins with a distant melody that is passed and answered between the two instruments, representing a shared emotion of unease and of fear of the unknown. The instruments entwine at times and at times are opposed, later moving into two voices running together in a cascade denoting a more resilient tone, then culminating in pulsing chords of unease.