“The Heavens Opened” was composed for brass quintet and commissioned by Tim Dueppen and the Cardinal Brass Quintet of Lamar University’s Mary Morgan Moore Department of Music. This work aims to depict the immense natural power and destruction of a hurricane in seven movements. The first movement, “Brilliant Skies,” sets the scene of a beautiful summer day with dazzling blue above. Movement two, “Calm Before,” portrays the beautiful stillness that precedes catastrophe. “Falling Rain” is the third movement in which members of the quintet trade ostinatos to represent the onset of a deluge. In movement four, the trombone wails through intense glissandi to embody “The Sirens.” Movement five, titled “The Storm,” accelerates while simultaneously devolving into tempestuous chaos, eventually receding to movement six, “The Aftermath.” As the stark realization of tragedy and loss sets in, peaceful motifs return for the final movement, “Divine Light and Petrichor,” bringing the hope of renewal.