PROGRAM NOTES

Premiere of Entrance to the City of Proud Fancy

This work, as it commemorates the 50th anniversary or the Northwest Symphony, is a celebration of fantasy. One hears all too often prosaic phrases like "just the facts," "give me the bottom line," "a no-nonsense kind of guy," and other soul-killing expressions of pure pragmatism. Fantasy and the unbounded world of imagination are all too often looked upon as folly. Yet it is imagination more than anything that pushes the human condition forward. As William Blake wrote, "What is now proved was once only imagined." Music, though it may be pressed into yeoman service, is above all the language of fantasy and heightened awareness. As music lovers, may we revel in dreams!

The rare opportunity not only to produce a new orchestral work, but to do it with maestro Paul Vermel is for me a cherished occasion, and I am grateful to all concerned with this production. Congratulations to the Northwest Symphony on its historic anniversary, and here's to another 50 years!

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