Wow, this is great!
I love some of the tactile things I can hear with your samples. The wood echo of the strings pizz, or I could hear the breathiness for some of the subtle wind moments. A hobbyist composer/aspiring medical professional? Very cool, and welcome!
You do some pretty eargasmic things in your music lol. Was that wind harmonics in the background at the part around 5:40? The part at 4:00 was really to my liking too, I love the bass/cello low suspenseful line. The winds at 5:00 remind me of the scherzo in Beethoven's 9th 😄 The ending section was very beautiful, and capped this off nicely.
This was a bit "heavier" in sound, which I think you flirted with the line of being too much. Nice job with that. It seemed to have a good balance with orchestral colors, and you didn't hold back with the wide range the orchestra offers (church bells, percussive stuff I couldn't quite make out, etc.).
One thing to think about is your melodies and motifs. To me, as impressive as your piece sounds, it could've benefitted with stronger themes for the listener to latch on to. About halfway through listening, I read your description of the music, and I like that you used a story for the form, but attaching motifs to characters or plot points would be something to delve into deeper next time. Maybe it's there and I just didn't catch it, but that's kinda the point.
I'm a guitarist, and with heavy distortion and high gain, I can mask a lot of "mistakes" or cookie cutter patterns in my leads. I can hide behind the "sound". I kind of hear something similar with this piece. There are lots of cool sounds and effects you create, and your samples really get to flourish in this. But, I'm just saying don't let that be your heavy distortion.
I listened to this 3 times, and after every listen, I liked it even more. 🙂 Kudos to a fine work, and good luck with the med stuff. Involve yourself in the community as well! People would love to hear your thoughts on their music.
Thanks for sharing!