Lucky

My grandmother, Nana, passed away in New York in the winter of 2020. With the coronavirus still raging, none of my extended family was able to fly east to pack up her apartment. The task, instead, fell to my girlfriend, Amanda, who was living in the city at the time. Near the end of the process, I received a voice memo from Amanda. Sitting at my grandmother's piano, she recorded one of the last scores that hadn't been boxed away: Edward MacDowell's "To a Wild Rose." For such a gentle and unassuming piece, the music carried startling gravitas. It seemed to me that the music served as the parting statement of an apartment where my grandparents had spent so much of their lives, the last expression of a place that was central to my notion of family. Amanda's recording allowed me to play and replay its "voice" as often as I needed. "Lucky" explores the ways in which 'To a Wild Rose' has helped me process Nana's death–how it has served as an expression of my grief and a gateway to my memories, as well as a shaper of both. 'Lucky' is dedicated to Nana.