Zuriel Merek was writing music about grief before his own had officially begun. His dad had lived with dementia for more than a decade and was in memory care; Zuriel was his primary caregiver, and he knew the end was coming. The friend who asked him to write that score had no idea. Zuriel is back at the Tiny Table with Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein, and the friend in question is Paul, who heard Zuriel play at the 2018 Catholic Creatives Conference and decided on the spot that if he ever made a film, Zuriel would score it. Years later, he did. Together is a short film with no dialogue about two people grieving, carried entirely by what’s on screen and the music Zuriel wrote for it.

The story underneath the score goes back much further. Zuriel’s parents signed him up for a strings class in fourth grade, and around the same time his dad took him to see The Last of the Mohicans at the dollar theater. That theme became one of the first loops Zuriel ever learned, a song he’s played at most of his shows since, the one his dad loved most (and the one he played at his dad’s funeral).

Zuriel and The BeatiDudes also discuss why Catholic art doesn’t have to be blatantly Catholic to point toward God, and how the true, the good, and the beautiful can quietly do the work of pre-evangelization. There’s also a surprisingly strong case for the Catholic sandwich artist. If you’ve ever loved someone through a long goodbye, this one’s for you.

TogetHER, directed by Paul Kolker
https://youtu.be/Gdcqx3ncH8g?si=ATnkcAsO4OFdSM5y

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