As a composer and musician, I have always been drawn to the connections between the visual and the aural—the concepts of “the color of sound,” and of synesthesia has always fascinated me. How does the brain make these connections between these two different stimuli? What makes this sound “purple,” and what about this particular piece of music reminds the listener of a quiet beach at sunset? Most importantly, how does the listener’s perspective of the piece differ from the composer’s, or the performer’s? In designing the concept for You Are The Artist, which I hope to expand into a concert series going forward, I wanted to create a space for listeners to interact with the music in their own way just as much as I wanted to perform my own empirical research on the connections between visual and aural stimuli. Furthermore, as a music educator, one of my main goals is for my audience— whether they are my students in a classroom or listeners in a concert hall—have meaningful interactions with music that are accessible to everybody. Regardless of where you are, or what materials you have access to, you are encouraged to craft and submit your own responses to the music you hear on this program—this is a composer-artist collaboration where you are the artist.