2024     'Dear Wife' 
               Baritone singer & Cello

Dear Wife is the first song of an upcoming song cycle where I intend to use authentic letters and messages discovered inside bottles in the sea as sung text, aiming to transform these unconventional sources into a compelling musical narrative. The intention is to research and gather these letters from various websites dedicated to collecting such material.

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I’m interested in this concept because, in contrast to the immediacy of modern communication, these messages in bottles carry a timeless and contemplative quality and were written by a real person. They represent a true ‘poetic’ outreach in hopes of making a meaningful human connection transcending time and distance.

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The text used in this song corresponds to a letter sent by Private Thomas Hughes, a 26 year old soldier, who sent this message into the English Channel, on his way to fight the Great War on September 9th, 1914.

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The bottle drifted in the sea for 85 years when caught in a net by the fisherman Steve Gowan on the Essex coast, in England, 1999.

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Tragically, just two days after tossing the bottle into the sea, Private Thomas Hughes was killed in combat. He left behind his wife Elizabeth and two-year-old daughter, Emily.

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