Millennium Overture was commissioned by Indiana University of Pennsylvania for its 125th Anniversary and millennium celebration. And premiered there, March 24, 2000, by the University Symphony Orchestra, Douglas E. Bish, conducting.

The following is taken from the composer’s pre-concert remarks that evening.

“The composition is all about time and divisions of time. The proportions of the work are created with reference to the golden mean and its numerical expression in the Fibonacci series — from the intricacies of the surface dance rhythms, which are in combinations of 2’s and 3’s growing into 5’s and 8’s, and on to the unfolding of the larger sections, like a seven part rondo, A, B, A, B, C, B, A. The whole is made up of 2000 16th notes, the smallest subdivision in the work. And a timpani solo begins at the 1000th 16th note or halfway point. The main contrasting “C” section, with its ritual like dance and repetitive accentuation, occurs at the 2:3 division of the whole. By pulling out, coloring and extending the tones, rhythms and shapes first heard in the beginning woodwind lines, a full musical fabric, with its song of celebration, gradually emerges. My overall concern was in shaping a work that sings, dances, and celebrates in sound the new millennium.”