Composer-conductor Mark Camphouse is professor of music and director of bands at Radford University in Virginia. Engagements as a guest conductor, clinician and lecturer have taken him to 38 states, Canada and Europe. He has won numerous awards, including the Commonwealth of Virginia's highest honor for faculty at its colleges and universities for demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and public service. The Pacific University commissioned him to write this work on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of its founding. The composer described his aims for this work: (1) to commemorate the past by creating a hymn that pays tribute to the University's Congregationalist founders; (2) to reflect the beauty of the campus (in Forest Grove, Oregon); and (3) to celebrate "what promises to be an exciting and increasingly vibrant future" for the university. The piece was premiered in December 1999 by the Pacific University Wind Ensemble. --James Huff 18:04, March 27, 2007 (EDT) (from the program notes of The Claremont Winds, submitted with permission)