About the piece:

Stay Close attempts to musically encapsulate the emotions experienced when the nature of a relationship stretches and reforms. It is a musical request to and a promise from me to my loved ones to stay close, no matter how we are distanced. It is also about believing in the endurance of a relationship as it shifts and reshapes.
As I progress through my 20s, I witness friends and loved ones growing alongside me. I see them pursuing goals, facing challenges; expected and unexpected, embracing change and travelling far and wide. It is a pleasure to watch and to celebrate each milestone, however accompanied by this joy is a bittersweetness. It is difficult to see friends uproot to new and unknown places, and I have grieved as they have gone away. Relationships transcending from the real world to online, we have resisted the time and distance between through phone calls and letters. Still, the relationship has evolved to become an adaptation of what once was. To encapsulate this jumble of emotions, the music in my piece contains moments of tension, despair and strangeness, and simultaneously moments of excitement, triumph and, by the closing of the piece, peacefulness.