Ghost Office grew out of a short poem that I wrote based on someone else's observation about the return to the office: "I put on my pants to go to the office and zoom all day." Though I no longer work in an office environment, I have experienced the joys of hybrid meetings for years and can only imagine how much worse it is after 2 years of COVID. Communication, socialization, and transit have long fascinated me. This is my depiction of an especially alienating and isolating time in office life.
Ghost Office was premiered by San Francisco Composers’ Chamber Orchestra on October 22, 2022
Full instrumentation: voice/flute/oboe/bassoon/horn/perc/piano/strings
I put on pants to go to the office to Zoom all day.
I sit and look at the screen,
I talk to people who aren’t really there.
I think about how I’m not really here.
We are all ghosts,
ghosts in the ether.
How will it end, and what will be left of us when it does?