HALO SCOPE is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit and the cultivation of peace through community in times of uncertainty as we brave the fear we feel, stepping into the unknown together with hope for a brighter tomorrow. 

I began the sketches for HALO SCOPE in January 2020. I simply wanted to turn rainbows into sheet music, but as I began mapping out the staves and painting the rainbows, Covid lockdown began in California, and kids all over the world began drawing rainbows and hanging them in their windows as beacons of hope, bravery, optimism, and unity.

The first sketch of what became HALO SCOPE was done in late 2019. It was a rainbow hugged between two staves and bookended by watercolor clouds. This was the beginning of a huge stream of ideas where music is written out of an object—like a rainbow, noodles on a fork, a lollipop, a ringed planet, etc. The original art was made on 11x17” paper, allowing pianists to read the music directly from the art score.

Rainbows, which are already symbols of hope, diversity, and love, were given even further depth of meaning in that difficult time by these children across the world and their acts of heroism through art.—Thérèse-Marie Chaix