For Clarinet/Violin/Cello/Piano (End of Time Quartet)
Duration: 7:00
From the opera Dolores.
Commissioned by the Chamber Music Conference and Composer’s Forum of the East, Inc., 2026.
This piece imagines the prayer that the young Juan Romero would have offered when he was holding Senator Robert F. Kennedy immediately after being shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. The photo of that moment is haunting but also inspiring that someone so young and vulnerable would be the first to help.
Senator Kennedy’s primary victory was owed in part to the United Farm Workers and their coalition of Mexican and Filipino union members. In my opera about civil and labor rights icon Dolores Huerta, Dolores (libretto Marella Martin Koch), we imagine what he might have thought as he held Bobby Kennedy. His character’s entrance is one of my favorite moments, because he represents the voice of hope and innocence and how it can be stolen in the blink of an eye.
The aria, now featuring a cello, has been reworked and intertwined with music from a different act. Many of the characters in Dolores are devout Catholics, and while writing Dolores, I found myself thinking about Olivier Messiaen and his Quartet for the End of Time, for which the instrumentation of this piece was chosen. His quartet remains one of my favorite works, its spirituality and reverence is undeniable.
Juan Romero passed away in 2018 at the age of 1968. His concern and kindness that evening helped the world to understand that there are people whose instinct is to hold and to comfort when we are in our darkest moments. I dedicate this work to him, and to all the people who show kindness in small ways and large.
Published by Buena Vida Music
#BVM1027
ASCAP: 937342726
For Clarinet/Violin/Cello/Piano (End of Time Quartet)
Duration: 7:00
From the opera Dolores.
Commissioned by the Chamber Music Conference and Composer’s Forum of the East, Inc., 2026.
This piece imagines the prayer that the young Juan Romero would have offered when he was holding Senator Robert F. Kennedy immediately after being shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. The photo of that moment is haunting but also inspiring that someone so young and vulnerable would be the first to help.
Senator Kennedy’s primary victory was owed in part to the United Farm Workers and their coalition of Mexican and Filipino union members. In my opera about civil and labor rights icon Dolores Huerta, Dolores (libretto Marella Martin Koch), we imagine what he might have thought as he held Bobby Kennedy. His character’s entrance is one of my favorite moments, because he represents the voice of hope and innocence and how it can be stolen in the blink of an eye.
The aria, now featuring a cello, has been reworked and intertwined with music from a different act. Many of the characters in Dolores are devout Catholics, and while writing Dolores, I found myself thinking about Olivier Messiaen and his Quartet for the End of Time, for which the instrumentation of this piece was chosen. His quartet remains one of my favorite works, its spirituality and reverence is undeniable.
Juan Romero passed away in 2018 at the age of 1968. His concern and kindness that evening helped the world to understand that there are people whose instinct is to hold and to comfort when we are in our darkest moments. I dedicate this work to him, and to all the people who show kindness in small ways and large.
Published by Buena Vida Music
#BVM1027
ASCAP: 937342726
