for female voices (SSA) and percussion ensemble

Lumiwanag (2017, rev. 2018) is the Filipino word for "Shine". I was going through a difficult time and was having a severe writer's block. So I did the thing that many composers do at some point during the creative process: improvise at the piano. After several minutes of sheer frustration and anger, I came across a certain chord cluster that somehow managed to resonate with me. I spent hours, days, and weeks coming back to that single chord at the piano, trying to find some kind of meaning. And when I found what I had been looking for, the piece began to shimmer and glow with a warm, soft light. 

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Lumiwanag explores the behavior of light as it travels across the wide vastness of the universe. As we find ourselves drifting through the fabric of space and time, light seems to travel past us with its dazzling, fleeting brilliance. Moving forward, in an instant, to where beginning and end meet; to where all things must go.