Prayer and Elegy was composed for Kathy Melago on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks. It is dedicated to the victims and first responders who perished—as well as the families and friends who had their loved ones painfully ripped out of their world—on that fateful day. The piece is offered as a lament: an invocation of remembrance for all those who have passed from this world and our lives, in many cases far too soon and as the result of utterly senseless violence.