Pegasus Fanfare for wind ensemble (2015)

Commissioned by Booker T. Washington HSPVA Wind Ensemble and premiered in Carnegie Hall on March 14, 2016. pc.2fl.2ob.3cl.bcl.2bsn.4sax(AATB), 3tpt.4hn.2trb.btrb.2euph.tba, timp+6perc

In the summer of 2015, I was commissioned to write a fanfare for the Wind Ensemble at Dallas ISD's Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts for their trip to Carnegie Hall in the upcoming school year. After a few nights of extemporaneously generating material for the piece, I realized that I needed first to write for a brass ensemble, and then expand the instrumentation and form to the piece that would ultimately fulfill the needs of a full Wind Ensemble.

Pegasus Fanfare was named for the winged horse that serves as the mascot for Booker T. Washington HSPVA. The pegasus has been an iconic part of the Dallas skyline since 1934 when a red, flaming, neon, winged-horse was first placed on the 29 story Magnolia Petroleum Building (now the Magnolia Hotel), the tallest building in the state at the that time. After years of being subjected to environmental harm, a newly restored pegasus was unveiled at the Magnolia Hotel on national television in time for New Years Eve 2000. Visual artist Stuart Kraft created the 27-foot tall Pegasus that sits outside the school as a symbol for the future generation of Dallas-born artists that Booker T. Washington HSPVA seeks to inspire.