“When I received the commission to write the fanfare that would begin the 2018 Ithaca College Commencement Ceremony, I was thrilled at the opportunity to be featured as a composer at my own graduation. I knew when I started the project that the performance of this piece would be my last premiere as an Ithaca College student before I went on to pursue my master’s degree at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Thus, I felt that the piece needed to express both the bittersweet of endings and the excitement of new beginnings, and with these sentiments in mind, I wrote what would soon become Onward (2018).”