Program Notes:

Home tells a story of someone longing for a place that is gone. Sometimes in life we end up settling in a strange, unfamiliar place that we do not feel comfortable in. It is easy to find nostalgia in the place we once were, but in order to move forward, we must be okay calling a new environment home. In order to capture this feeling, I asked my friend Emma Clark to write the text.

Premiered November 16, 2024 at Bowling Green State University

“Where the heart isn’t”

I sit here staring out at the sea
surrounding my new
home.
Home, home, home.
I am home, my brain
understands this unfamiliar
fact, yet my ears yearn
for the laughter once
filling a house shared,
messy, yet whole.
Home.
The salted waters
before me do not quell
my thirst for connection
with those I love,
as I jump, headfirst,
unwillingly, into the bowl
of life. They say
home
is where the heart
is, so I wonder what
becomes of the place
where the heart isn’t
yet.

by Emma Clark.