UCLA’s ‘Moment of Reflection’ marks the one-year anniversary of the LA fires

On an otherwise ordinary January afternoon at UCLA, the steps outside Schoenberg Hall became a place of collective pause and commemoration. The adjacent lawns of Dickson Court South, still saturated from back-to-back winter storms, served as a reminder of how starkly different conditions were last January, a time that lingers so painfully for so many.

One year to the day after the deadly Palisades and Eaton fires erupted, carving paths of destruction that affected thousands of Bruins, their families and other Angelenos, members of the UCLA community gathered for a "Moment of Reflection." The Jan. 7 ceremony provided a shared space to contemplate the scale of the loss and to carry on the process of healing and renewal - through music, the planting of wildflower seeds and togetherness.

As attendees listened quietly on the Schoenberg patio, Chancellor Julio Frenk spoke to the enduring impact of the fires across the Los Angeles region. "For many in our community, the sense of loss is still deeply felt; we hold them in our hearts today," he said. "Anniversaries like this inspire us to come together - to remember the lives lost, the neighborhoods altered and the feelings of grief that remain with us."

Jacob Haselhoff, a first-year music composition major from Santa Monica who had been evacuated from his home in January 2025, said he appreciated that "there's still support … they didn't forget about us."

Frenk also recalled the tremendous outpouring of kindness and compassion during the fires. With the blazes still raging, Bruins connected with one another and mobilized, launching efforts to provide emergency financial support, food, housing, health care and other basic needs, both on campus and across the city. "Across our community, Bruins checked in on one another," he said. "Faculty, staff, students and alumni opened their hearts and their homes."

In the spirit of civic service, the university donated space at the UCLA Research Park for a one-stop disaster recovery center serving impacted residents. And faculty research and expertise have, from the very beginning, helped the region to recover, heal, rebuild and plan for a more resilient future.

But the healing of a campus and a city can take many forms, including music, in which "we can find a keener sense of our shared humanity," Frenk said.

The power of song: Moving from darkness into light

And at the heart of "Moment of Reflection" was music - offered not as performance but as a form of communal reflection. Thirty-one members of the campus's premier vocal ensemble, the UCLA Chamber Singers, presented "Only in Sleep," an a cappella work by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvaldsknown for its hushed intensity and its themes of memory and longing. The piece, featuring soprano soloist Madison Chamberlain, was conducted by James Bass, director of choral studies and a professor at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

"The music mirrors both the tenderness of our loss and the promise of renewal that can emerge in moments of collective reflection," Frenk had said in introducing the ensemble.

Chamberlain, who recalled the immense fear and anxiety she felt watching the fires inch closer to campus last January, echoed Frenk's sentiments about the power of music to bring people together in the wake of the tragedy.

"Music can do so much and heal so many people," said the fourth-year music education major. "I think having the arts represented is so important. It's kind of the first step in getting back to some sense of normalcy but also a sense of community together."

From wildfires to wildflowers: Sowing seeds of hope

With the echo of choral voices still lingering in the air, Frenk invited attendees to join him and his partner, Felicia Marie Knaul, in a symbolic act of healing and renewal: the sowing of wildflower seeds. "We go from reflection to action, from destruction and loss to connection and community - from wildfires to wildflowers," the chancellor said.

Small paper packets containing native California species - from coastal poppy and elegant clarkia to punch bowl godetia and blue field gilia - were passed from hand to hand, with attendees gently sprinkling the seeds onto the damp soil in several planters.

The planters were then taken to the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, where the seeds will be planted alongside another new addition to the garden and a symbol of profound resilience and rejuvenation - a manzanita sapling. Manzanitas, California native plants whose red bark and twisting limbs are a familiar feature of Altadena's landscape, were decimated during the Eaton fire but are also among the first plants to reappear. At the garden, a plaque will be placed next to the tree paying tribute to members of the UCLA community who were impacted by the fires.

"In this case, we planted seeds, but I think it's more than that," said Knaul after the event, reflecting on the community members she spoke with who were directly impacted as well as those who had empathy for victims. "It reminds us how much people are still hurting, a year after an event, and there's still so much that can be done to help."

As the ceremony concluded and guests lingered near the Schoenberg steps, the mood remained contemplative, without closing fanfare or formal departures - just a collective feeling of quiet solidarity.

" It really does feel like it symbolizes rebirth - not only with the sentiment 'from wildfires to wildflowers,' but just hearing the chorale sing while the sun gave that halo effect behind them," said Sara Mosgrove, assistant director for alumni career engagement in UCLA Alumni Affairs."I lost myself in the moment and felt like this was a part of our community healing."

For Frenk, the gathering was both a moment of contemplation and a reaffirmation of how the UCLA spirit - across research, the arts and community service - can heal, renew and transform.

"This is what great universities like UCLA do," Frenk said. "Our scholarly and creative work reaches deep into communities and - in lasting ways - improves and even saves lives."