Labyrinth

A composition for solo piano by Trisha Virdi

Developed through the 2025 Summer Composing Mentorship

Mentored by Soheil Shirangi

Piano:Qin Lan Zhang

Published by Zang Records in August 2026

“Never trust it if it rises fast, it can’t last.”
-Taylor Swift, Labyrinth
This piece grew out of the idea of repetition and return; of how things in life, music, and memory often come back, but never in quite the same way. I kept thinking of
circles, or perhaps spirals, where motion feels continuous but subtly transformed
each time it completes a turn.
The opening has no clear sense of direction. It moves tentatively, feeling its way
forward through changing harmonies and textures, curious but uncertain about where
it wants to go. Out of this wandering, a lullaby like melody begins to take shape; soft
and lyrical, though never entirely stable. The harmony beneath it shifts constantly, so that even when it feels familiar, there’s a quiet unease to it, like a moth circling a
light and mistaking it for home. As the piece unfolds, this lullaby returns several times, each repetition altered, in key, register, or contour, as if it is remembering itself differently each time. Rubato
passages act like sighs or landing points, giving space for reflection before the music
begins to spiral forward again. The sense of time becomes fluid: moments stretch, repeat, and blur, creating the feeling of being caught between memories and dreams.
Eventually, the stillness breaks. The music rises suddenly into a dramatic climax;
loud and unstable. It swells too quickly, almost overwhelming itself, before collapsing
just as fast. This moment is not so much a resolution as a release; an inevitable collapseafter rising too far, too soon. When the lullaby returns after this, it carries a new kind of calm. It is quieter, more
grounded, as if the earlier turbulence has burned away its uncertainty.
The piece ends with a sense of stillness- like a memory fading, or the space just
after a dream before you wake.

Trisha Virdi is a pianist and composer for concert and visual media, whose work
explores the meeting point of narrative, harmony, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
She began her piano journey at the age of 4, later pursuing her passion for composition
at Berklee College of Music, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Film Scoring with
minors in Video Game Scoring and Visual Culture and New Media Studies. She is
currently studying for her master’s degree in Music Composition at the Royal Welsh
College of Music and Drama.Her professional experience spans a wide range of
projects in film scoring, arranging, music prep and orchestration, collaborating with
directors, ensembles, and instrumentalists across multiple disciplines.
In addition to her compositional career, Trisha is passionate about education, with
experience teaching music composition, theory, ear training, etc. Having lived and
studied internationally; in Japan, India, the United States, and the United Kingdom, she
brings a global perspective to her artistic and pedagogical work.