The International Orange Chorale of San Francisco (IOCSF) is proud to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award. This grant will support IOCSF’s commission of a new work by world-renowned composer Tarik O'Regan, “Requiem for the Estranged,” which explores mourning complicated relationships and estrangement from the past, and whose text will be sourced from the stories of our community.

Estrangement is a complex, multi-faceted range of emotions that can often stir up complicated feelings when we confront a past that is no longer our current reality. Those feelings can include intense grief, shame, and isolation, among a range of others.

But we are not alone in our experiences of estrangement. Our aim with this new choral work is to tell stories of estrangement within our community to reflect back the often unspoken impact of the difficult but necessary choices we make in the name of our safety, social justice, and progress. Through this piece, we hope to offer the opportunity of some solace for those of us experiencing estrangement from a past that no longer fits our shared values.

We are asking you to contribute your stories and your voices below to help create a new work of art that speaks to the unique grief that is created through estrangement in all of its forms.