"A world apart; connected" is an exploration of the loneliness and desolation that I felt during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like so many other artists, I fell into a complete state of disarray, bouncing from forced productivity to anxiously depressed lethargy, all the while uncertain as to what the future may hold.

The text for this choral work is completely original, a poem of sorts illustrating how I had initially dealt with the stress and anxiety of the pandemic in that first year, as well as the longing and desire to connect with others in person again. Word painting is used for when the singers are asked to chant the numbers "zero" and "one" in sequential patterns. These sections form the binary code which, when translated, eventually spells out the phrase "time and space" (spaces included).

In the years that have passed since I first wrote this work, vaccines and treatments were developed and the quarantine had ended. Much of the general population has returned to a life pre-pandemic - a life now considered normal again.

But at what cost?