Compassion

Compassion: 'to love together'. Feelings and concerns for the misfortune of another; kindness that follows from need or distress born from a sense of interdependence and fairness.

My capacity to feel aligned with another's suffering is a tool that motivates me to act and change. The differences in style in this piece reflect the importance I place of compassion in any period or place.

The viola is the focus of my attention, the subject of my compassion. The piano represents my response to that which is in need of compassion. At times the viola and piano are in harmony, and at others they are dissonant. There is however always a willingness to be with. Before the pensive closure the viola and piano wrap one another with their rich and relaxed harmony and movement, a moment that shows compassion as an active and constructive quality of the heart.

The ending of the piece, while not a point of resolution, is for me a moment of relative peace as compared with the emotional intensity that characterizes much of the work.