"Winter Toccata" ("I can't believe you want to die") grew out of Maggio's AIDS volunteer work, beginning as a musical response to the polemics by Larry Kramer in his book "Reports from The Holocaust: The Marking of an AIDS Activist". Initially Maggio strove to make the cello into Kramer's voice, imitating the driving rhythms of his writing, creating melodies out of favorite sentences, with the words written above the cello line. In doing so, Maggio found a connection to the rhythm and passion of his own voice. What resulted was a vocal piece, especially at the start of the first movement: long, slow, singing lines - arching, lyrical, yearning.