Written Story by Max Mabry

Hello, 

My name is Max Mabry, and I am a recent graduate from the University of Oregon. I am submitting for your COVID Storytelling submission with my way of telling stories and expressing myself, which is through musical composition. While I understand this may be a bit of a stretch, I figured I would submit it anyway in case it caught your interest and could be used for your project. My piece is called Piano Suite for the World Today, and it is a piano suite that I wrote during COVID that explored some of the feelings I had as we all went through the motions of COVID as a community. 

Here is a link to a performance of the piece I am soon releasing to the public on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRr4JfBf-E8  

The movements of the piece are named as follows: 

I. Simplicity

II. The Awkward Dance Partner

III. Calamity 

IV. Stuck in Your Own Mind

V. A Conflicted Resolution

And this is the program note that I wrote to go with the piece: 

Piano Suite for the World Today was a piece I wrote as a reaction to the impact of COVID on people’s everyday lives. The different movements represent different physical or mental states of being during the pandemic, and the rapid changes in mood and energy between the movements represent the temperament of people as they dealt with their own thoughts and life as it was affected by the drastic shift that occurred throughout the world. 

Thank you so much for your time, 

Max Mabry 

maxmabry.com