TCNJ Wind Ensemble is collaborating with the college’s Artivism Project to present “Life After Loss” concert, a performance honoring the universal experience of navigating life after loss. The concert aims to explore the connections that human beings create through shared experiences of loss and how healing can be found through those connections.
The Artivism Project was created as a means to bring awareness to social justice issues and provoke discussions among members of the TCNJ community through an artistic medium. The project’s main goal in collaborating with the Wind Ensemble is to allow individual stories to be told and shared in the hopes of fostering community connections and bringing about healing.
World-renowned composer Viet Cuong will be in attendance as the TCNJ Wind Ensemble performs the premiere of his new work, Shared Spaces. The concert will also include repertoire by Baljinder Sekhon, Morten Lauridsen, David Maslanka and Carlos Simon.
“Each piece is really unique and stunning in its own way. I think that each piece offers a really unique reflection point on living through life after loss and really celebrates and highlights our talented students,” said Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands Eric Laprade.
The performance will explore questions such as “How do we carry on? What does life after loss look like? Sound like? Feel like?”
Laprade highlighted the significance of this performance for the TCNJ Bands community, sharing that over the last five and a half years, four TCNJ Bands students have passed away, as well as Dr. Gary Fienberg, a long-time music faculty member. He hopes that this performance is cathartic for all those who are experiencing living life after losing a loved one.
Not only is this performance significant in its exploration of human grief and healing, but it is also a celebration of the dedication and talent of the student performers who are essential in the exploration of how the world around us can be interpreted and understood through music and art.
Nataly Lukonin, a sophomore psychology major with a music minor, shared her experience of working with the TCNJ Wind Ensemble to put together this performance.
“This concert cycle shows how music can portray feelings of joy and energy but also mourning and despair, and getting to use that part of your mind to perform it has been an enlightening and enriching experience,” she said.
TCNJ Wind Ensemble’s “Life After Loss” concert will be on April 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kendall Main Stage Theater, with a pre-concert discussion at 7 p.m. For tickets, visit the TCNJ Box Office.
– Leah Cruz ‘26