TIDES

Tides explores the idea of parallel lives - ones that begin on one side of the Atlantic and continue on the other. Written for piano four hands, the image of two pianists seated side by side becomes a metaphor for duality: a self preserved in memory at home and another shaped by a life built elsewhere. Playing while sitting beside oneself - balancing past and present selves - lies at the heart of the work.

The music is a balance of intimacy and intensity, drawing on my Celtic roots and the musical influences I encountered in Europe, particularly Bulgarian and Romanian folk traditions. A recurring Celtic-inspired melody, associated with the idea of home, appears throughout the sonata in different forms, sometimes fragmented or obscured before emerging most fully in the final movement.

At the centre of the work is the idea of home, not as something fixed but as something remembered and reimagined. The Atlantic Ocean becomes both a geographical boundary and a musical image: beautiful, familiar and capable of immense force. The final movement returns to the recurring melody against the impression of waves breaking along the rocky shore of Nova Scotia.