BACKGROUND

In Fall 2022, the Imaginator Academy research team began working with the CU Denver College of Arts & Media singer/songwriter major, Verena Fuentes, to use the science behind hope, trust, belonging, creativity, curiosity, and wonder to co-create a new song. We are thrilled to share the final result of this unique arts-science collaboration.

Our research team is grateful to Verena, the Music & Entertainment Industry Studies program chair, Sean McGowan, Sam McGuire, and all the musicians and technicians who played important roles in producing this amazing final result: Hayden Hallatt (Recording/mixing/mastering engineer); Haiden Davis (Violin and arrangement); Aidan Roberts (Guitar and arrangement); Tyler Hamlin: Drums and arrangement; and Christopher Adams (Bass and arrangement).

COURAGEOUS IMAGINATION (Lyrics)
by Verena Fuentes

I love new adventures
But I’m scared of getting lost and confused
Are my memories and dreams enough to get me through
So much unknown
So much of me I could lose

Is it fear of things others want me to see
Or loneliness I feel when I try to be me

Stepping forward despite of it all
Doing what is harder
All I know is I’m no longer scared of being me

I don’t wanna live in the imagination of a stranger
All I know is I wanna jump and find out how far I can go
How far I can go
How far I can go

Living into my own imagination

I wonder what does that really mean
Cause when I get to a room full of people
All I ask is

Do I feel safe
What connects me to them
Will a shared future come to be
Do I belong here…

If I look around
I think what has me thinking this way
Why do I take for granted
Everything they say

Stepping forward despite of it all creating what means more
I’m curious to see how much of us we’ll find out there

We can see and touch that life of our own imagination.
All I know is I wanna jump and find out
How far I can go
How far You can go
How far we can go

With Courage and Imagination

Solo x2
No limits here in the mirror of my own imagination
But what do you see?
Can we find new possibilities
If we open a window
to our own imagination