The Lagoon 

*NOW AVAILABLE FOR SATB and SSAA

$2.00/copy | Peruse SATB | Peruse SSAA | Purchase |

I have lived five minutes from Northern Illinois University almost my entire life. Since I graduated in 2011, I have been back to my alma mater every summer to teach at a music camp - yet in all that time, I had never returned to campus just to partake in its natural environment… until just last year. 

Created in 1907, The East Lagoon is nestled just south of the NIU Music Building, along the western edge of the Elwood Historic District. I think it is the single most beautiful area on the campus, ironically in the summer, when so few people are on campus to enjoy it.  Still in the quiet of summer break, something pulled me in, and I found myself wandering back to this spot on an unusually forgiving afternoon in early August.  In the two hours that I sat there alone, I saw the lagoon through strangely different eyes. As I took in every single detail like I was experiencing it for the first time, this poetry materialized at the edge of the water. 

Almost as soon as I finished writing it, I knew it would inevitably be set to music. 

Written for the 2023 PREMIERE|Project Festival, for performance on June 30, 2023 by Dr. Brandon Elliott and the Choral Arts Initiative in Irvine, California.