This piece is based on the sonnet “Easter Dawn,” by Macolm Guite, and it was commissioned by the community at St. Matt’s Islington, as part of their “Musical Moments” series of concerts. I was inspired by the imagery in this poem, of that first Easter morning: Mary sitting with her grief, unable to recognize that all around her, light is at play, and dawn is at hand. And then her gradual recognition that Jesus was present, emerging with life right in the midst of her sorrow. The change that the sound of Christ’s voice begins in her – calling her to rejoice in life after death, in day after night, in His presence, forevermore.