Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz, associate professor of theory and composition at Otterbein University, worked with poet Louise Robertson to create a musical work as part of the innovative poetry and music commissioned project, The Big SCORE. The poem, set to Merkowitz’s original composition, focuses on the topic of immigrant families separated at the southern U.S. border. This collaboration’s result, At the Detention Center for Immigrant Children, has instrumental sounds that simulate the sound of the buzz of a lightbulb and construction work on a hypothetical border wall.

Read more about The Big SCORE.

Watch an interview with composer Jennifer Merkowitz and listen to part of her composition on Youtube.