PROGRAM NOTES
Sweet Dreams was commissioned by the Arroyo Vista Middle School Bands (California) under the direction of Ashley Stevens. It was composed in February of 2020 shortly after the birth of my nephew, Robert Hayden Grant. He was born premature and spent the first several weeks of life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the local Children’s Hospital. Just a few pounds in size, we watched him overcome many challenges that no one in our family fully anticipated he would face. The memory that frequently plays in my head is the image of Hayden asleep in his crib, twitching his fingers and toes, dreaming things we could only imagine. This lullaby, which was sketched on my laptop in the hospital waiting room, is dedicated to Hayden in hopes that he continues to dream of a world unlike what anyone else can see.