Sarah Gibson was a close personal friend and colleague; we collaborated on numerous artistic

projects over the years, and she was a prize former student. I remember clearly sitting in the

Hollywood Bowl boxes several years ago with Sarah and family as we all enjoyed the LA Phil

playing her music to the delight of thousands in the audience. She was one of those students

who makes the vocation of teaching so profoundly meaningful.

This Elegy for Sarah evokes a specific time and place: during the height of Covid, Sarah and

violist Kate Vincent gave a backyard concert at Kate's and my house, in three sets, each with

an audience of six on the driveway facing the music studio with Sarah and Kate making music

just inside the open French doors. For the concert I chose an excerpt of a piece I'd written for

Kate, now in an arrangement for viola and piano. This served as a point of departure for the

Elegy, with a tribute to Sarah’s characteristic ‘indie-rock’ style and with a tombeau at its core.

The cowbells framing the Elegy, accompanying Sarah on her journey home, were hanging on

the majestic oak tree in the backyard in clear view of our miniature concert.

                                                                                                                        - Donald Crockett