American composer Armando Bayolo (b. 1973) was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico to Cuban parents. Early interest in music led him to high school at the Interlochen Academy in Michigan, and eventually composition studies at Eastman (BM), Yale (MM), and the University of Michigan (DMA). He has been richly praised for his work across many genres, and he has received commissions and performances around the world as a result. His work has received many awards, including two Pulitzer Prize nominations. Bayolo is also a conductor and advocate for contemporary music. In that capacity, he leads the Great Noise Ensemble, a Washington, DC-based contemporary music group. See more about him at his website, Great Noise Ensemble, New Music Box, and the Wind Repertory Project.

Last Breaths began life as a chamber piece before being adapted for large wind ensemble by the composer in 2016. His program note explains its grim but all too real inspiration (I’ve added some links):

In December, 2014, a grand jury in New York declared police officer Daniel Pantaleo not liable in the choking death of Eric Garner, a street vendor of “loosey” cigarettes who posed no violent threat to officer Pantaleo or those around him and was killed in a display of police arrogance and brutality that is sadly all too common (especially against African Americans) in the United States of America in the 21st century. A month before, the town of Ferguson, Missouri, a subdivision of St. Louis, a city close to my heart, exploded in sometimes violent demonstrations when another grand jury acquitted police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, who was unarmed. The Ferguson riots were not only an explosion of rage from an increasingly marginalized community, but also proved a demonstration of the increased militarization of police forces in the United States.

I do not tend to write a lot of specifically political pieces, but the events above are merely a drop in an increasingly bloody bucket, and angered a lot of people, including myself. In Last Breaths, I join my voice in the outcry against these growing injustices. The piece began as a much more straightforward set of songs for Loadbang, with whom I’d been trying to find a collaborative project for some time, but by December, 2014, after the Ferguson riots and the Eric Garner decision, I needed to join my voice to the growing outcry, however humbly. In 2016, my friend and Great Noise Ensemble colleague, David Vickerman, asked me to prepare a large ensemble version of it for a his On Justice and Peace project. This piece is the result.
Last Breaths sets the last words of six young men killed by police in the last ten years. I hope it honors their memories in some small way, and it is to those memories, along with countless others’, that this work is dedicated.

Those last words, which form the text and musical inspiration for each movement, were:

Eric Garner: “I can’t breathe.”

John Crawford: “It’s not real.”

Trayvon Martin: “What are you following me for?”

Sean Bell: “I love you too.”

Kimani Gray: “Please don’t let me die.”

Jonathan Ferrell: [hands up in silence]

Here is the Montclair State University Wind Ensemble with baritone Al-Jabril Muhammad performing Last Breaths at the 2019 CBDNA national conference in Tempe, Arizona. Follow along in the score if you’d like.

The consortium for the wind ensemble version of Last Breaths was led by David Vickerman at The College of New Jersey. Other members included:

Arizona State University Wind Ensemble, Jason Caslor, conductor
Gustavus Adolphus College Wind Orchestra, James Patrick Miller, conductor
Gustavus Adolphus College Office of the Chaplains
Limestone College Wind Ensemble, Patrick K. Carney, conductor
Montclair State University Wind Symphony, Thomas McCauley, conductor
California State University Stanislaus Wind Ensemble, Stuart Sims, conductor
University of Maryland Wind Orchestra, Michael Votta, conductor
University of Georgia Hodgson Wind Ensemble, Cynthia Johnston Turner, conductor
University of South Florida Wind Ensemble, John C. Carmichael, conductor

See more about Last Breaths at Armando Bayolo’s website, Murphy Music Press, Midwest Sheet Music, and this article from The College of New Jersey.