In May of this year, we lost one of the brightest, most joyful musicians this country has known. Blaize was luminous, the kind of person who made every room feel warmer, every rehearsal feel like a privilege, every note feel like it mattered. He was taken from us far, far too soon.

In the days since, I’ve found myself returning again and again to the outpouring of love in the comments the memories, the stories, the laughter and the grief bound up together and each one has been a reminder of just how many lives he touched. He deserves to be remembered in a way that goes beyond words.

And so I want to honour him through something that permeated so much of his life, through music.

I am commissioning a new short work for chamber orchestra between five and ten minutes to be written in his memory. A piece that carries something of his spirit: his warmth, his brightness, his extraordinary gift. Any funds raised beyond the cost of the commission will go toward a professional recording of the work, so that his family, and all of us who loved him, will have something to hold onto. Something that lasts.