I wrote Holiday Parade in 1991 while I was a sophomore in college. It marks my first work for band and also the oldest work in my catalog of available works. Shortly after its completion, it was premiered with the Eastman Wind Ensemble at the baton of Lois Ferrari and was later performed by the University of Michigan Symphony Band directed by H. Robert Reynolds. One of my father’s stories from his days as a youngster in small-town West Virginia playing in the marching band inspired the work. My father, while playing trumpet in a town parade, was unfortunately caught off guard. As the band rounded a turn on the parade route, he mistakenly marched straight out of the parade route to the amusement of many. The truth of the story was obvious by how he would always blush whenever the tale was recounted.