PROGRAM NOTES
On November 2, 2021, a bus transporting students home from the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School was involved in a tragic accident, resulting in the death of freshman vocal major Brylee Walker and bus driver Lindsay Thompkins Jr. As the tragic news pulsed through the Lincoln Park family, an overwhelming outpouring of support for everyone involved in this horrific tragedy came from all over. As a fifteen-year teacher at Lincoln Park, my family and I were trying to find a way to support not only the families of the victims, but Brylee’s friends and teachers as well. Music has the power to comfort, so I did what I know how to do—I wrote some music. The result is “Do Not. For, I Am...” based on the poem “Do Not Stand by My Grave and Weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye.
The piece, scored for SSA or SAB and piano, is in three parts. The first is a solemn setting of the text “Do not stand by my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep.” As these lines are repeated throughout
