Jordan E.

Kinsey, music director

presents

ALL
American
Central Middle School
Dover, Delaware
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
7:00 PM
 Program
Liberty Fanfare (1986) John Williams
(b. 1932)
arr. James Curnow

Eternal Father, Strong to Save Claude T. Smith

(1932-1987)
In Memoriam
Captain John S. McCain III (1936-2018)
Lieutenant George H.W. Bush (1924-2018)
Rest easy, sirs. We have the watch.

East Coast Pictures (1985) Nigel Hess

Shelter Island (b. 1953)
The Catskills
New York

Columbine High School Alma Mater (2000) Frank Ticheli

(b. 1958)
Mountains rising to the sun,
Tow’ring o’er the plains.
Heads held high we stand as one,
And proudly we proclaim:

We are Columbine!
We all are Columbine!
Let the world be told,
Blue and silver uphold forever.

An American Elegy (2000) Frank Ticheli

(b. 1958)
Chris Patterson, conductor
 ~Intermission~

Gentle Annie Stephen Foster

(1826-1864)
ed. Loras Schissel
Rocky Snyder, euphonium

Summerland William Grant Still

(1895-1978)
Nicholas Greeson, conductor

Variations on a Shaker Melody Aaron Copland

(1900-1990)
Dr. Christopher Dobbins, guest conductor

O Magnum Mysterium (1994/2003) Morten Lauridsen

(b. 1943)
trans. H. Robert Reynolds
Schyler Adkins, conductor

Let the Amen Sound (2012) Travis J. Cross

(b. 1977)

Americans We Henry Fillmore

(1881-1956)
From the music director….

There are two things of which I am certain:

1) America is an incredibly broken nation. This “democracy” thing

we’re trying to do is an incredibly messy and difficult way of
governance; and we have failed at it more times than we’ve succeeded.

2) America is the greatest nation that has ever existed on Earth.

What is America? A few images spring to my mind. The first occurred

during the summer of 1999, which was between my junior and senior
years of high school. I had the opportunity to travel to five countries in
Europe (in ten days) as part of a school group. It was my first time
outside of the United States. When driving past the American
Embassy in London, I noticed that there was a long line of people that
began at one of the doors and extended all the way down the block and
around the corner. It must’ve been a couple hundred people at least. I
asked our English tour guide what this was, and she said that it was a
line of British citizens applying for visas to emigrate to the United
States. She also said that this was a rather standard sight at the
Embassy on any given weekday.

Great Britain is not exactly a third-world country. As a 17-year-old, I

had always thought of it as a perfectly fine place to live - not much
different at all than the United States. Why, then, in the almost-21st-
century, would there be lines of hundreds of people every weekday
trying to leave to come to America? What did they think our nation
had to offer that they couldn’t find in Britain? This indefinable
yearning that has drawn thousands of immigrants to our shores for the
last 400 years, is America.

The second image is something that can be found only minutes away
from where you’re sitting right now. Up and down the Eastern
Seaboard of Delaware and Southern New Jersey, there are 11
cylindrical concrete towers. Known as “fire towers”, these simple
statuesque buildings range in size from 50-feet to 64-feet high. On a
clear day, from atop the one at Cape Henlopen, you can see almost 15
miles of our state’s stunningly beautiful coastline.
But these towers were not constructed for tourists. They were built by
the United States Army between 1939 and 1942 to keep an eye on the
German U-boats that were patrolling the East Coast as part of
“Operation Drumbeat” and sinking, on average, one US ship per week.
On January 27, 1942, just off the coast of Lewes, a German torpedo
tore into the side of the 7,000-pound US tanker Francis E. Powell. It
was torn in half. Over 100 sailors perished before dawn in the icy
waters of the Delaware Bay.

I was in my mid-thirties before I learned that German U-boats had

operated so close to our homeland in the early days of the war. My high
school and college history classes portrayed World War II as a
monstrous affair, but one that took place entirely “over there.”
Watching the 2007 Ken Burns’ documentary The War, I learned for the
first time that it was a war that we truly came very close to losing
multiple times. It was only through the incomparable resilience of “The
Greatest Generation” (a well-deserved and accurate description) that
we succeeded. This, too, is America.

The genesis of our nation was in the displacement and decimation of

the 18 to 20 million native peoples who inhabited this land, and lived
harmoniously with it in ways that European immigrants have never
seemed to figure out, for thousands of years. This, too, is America.
From these beginnings, our nation proceeded to build much of our
economic strength in the 18th and 19th centuries on the literal backs
of approximately 12 million enslaved Africans. This, too, is America.

Between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 recorded lynchings occurred in the

United States, and it is known that countless more were never
recorded. 72.7% of the individuals who were brutally murdered in this
fashion were black, and many of the white people were lynched for
assisting the African-American community in some way. This legacy is
reflected in 2019 in the fact that black men are three times more likely
to be killed by police than white men. Studies show that police are
more likely to pull over and frisk blacks or Latinos than whites. In
New York City, 80% of the stops made were blacks and Latinos, and
85% of those people were frisked, compared to a mere 8% of white
people stopped. After being arrested, African-Americans are 33% more
likely than whites to be detained while facing a felony trial. African-
Americans comprise only 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of the
monthly drug users, but are 37% of the people arrested for drug-
related offenses in America. African Americans receive 10% longer
sentences than whites through the federal system for the same crimes,
and are 21% more likely than whites to receive mandatory minimum
sentences and 20% more likely to be sentenced to prison than white
drug defendants. An African-American male born in 2001 has a 32%
chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a Latino male has a 17%
chance, and a white male only has a 6% chance. In 2012, 51% of
Americans expressed anti-black sentiments in a poll; a 3% increase
from 2008. This, too, is America.

Tonight’s concert is an attempt to explore, through music, everything

that it is to be an American in 2019. The good, the bad, the beautiful,
and the ugly. The heartwarming and the heart wrenching. It is all
there in our story. To appreciate the flag raising on Iwo Jima without
acknowledging the death of Freddie Gray is dishonest. To relish in the
first moon landing without facing the horrors of chattel slavery is to
paint an incomplete picture.

We intentionally include a work by an immigrant composer: it remains

true that we are a nation of immigrants, and that our nation could not
function without their enriching contributions to the brilliant tapestry
of our society. We intentionally include a work by an African-American
composer: their centuries-old struggle for equality results in a
distinctive musical voice. And two of the pieces this evening are
American re-settings of ancient European texts and tunes: musically
speaking, America is an exceedingly young nation. Much of our canon
is comprised of European music that has been refashioned through the
lens of our experience.

I remain as proud as ever to be an American. In the words of President

Bill Clinton, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be
cured by what is right with America.” May we all re-commit ourselves
to that work, and to that promise.

Until next time,

Program notes:

In 1982, in preparation for the Statue of Liberty’s upcoming centennial in 1986, the statue
was examined in great detail by French and American engineers. This powerful symbol of
American welcome that had stood in New York harbor for almost 100 years, shining its
beacon light toward a new life for countless throngs of immigrants, was found to be in an
alarming state of decay. The cast-iron skeletal structure inside the statue was badly corroded;
the right arm was found to have been improperly attached and was in significant danger of
breaking completely off; and the head had been installed two feet off center, causing one of
the rays of the crown to wear a hole in the right arm whenever the statue moved in the wind.

The Reagan administration devoted $350 million to the statue’s renovation, and it was closed
to the public in 1984 for the two-year-long project. Workers erected the world’s largest free-
standing scaffold and used liquid nitrogen and baking soda to remove layers of paint (and two
layers of coal tar) that had been applied to the interior of the copper skin over the decades.
The original torch was removed and replaced with the current one, which is covered in 24-
karat gold. The entire iron skeleton was replaced with stainless steel.

For the re-dedication and centennial celebration weekend on July 3-6, 1986, American film
composer John Williams was commissioned to write a fanfare to celebrate the event. His
Liberty Fanfare was premiered during that weekend’s televised ceremony by the Boston
Pops Esplanade Orchestra, with the composer conducting. In President Reagan’s dedication
speech just before lighting the statue’s new torch, he stated, “We are the keepers of the flame
of liberty; we hold it high for the world to see.”

Inspired by the dangers of the sea described in Psalm 107, Eternal Father, Strong to Save
was first used for devotional use and benedictions at the United States Naval Academy in
1879. It eventually became an academy, and then a service-wide, tradition, becoming known
as the Navy Hymn; and is customarily played or sung at funerals of those who have served in
or been associated with the United States Navy. It was sung at the funeral of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, played by the Navy Band at the funeral of John F. Kennedy, sung at
the funeral of Richard Nixon, and played by the Navy Band and the Coast Guard Band
during the funeral of Ronald Reagan. Most recently, the hymn was sung by the congregation
and choir during the funeral for Senator John McCain at the Washington National Cathedral
on 1 September 2018 and at the funeral for former President George H.W. Bush at the
Washington National Cathedral on 5 December 2018, as both were US Navy pilots. After the
addition and alteration of portions of the text, the hymn is now inclusive of all branches of the
Armed Services.

The most commonly sung version of the text is as follows:

Almighty Father, strong to save,

Whose arm hat bound the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.

O Christ, the Lord of hill and plain

O’er which our traffic runs amain
By mountain pass or valley low;
Wherever, Lord, thy brethren go,
Protect them by thy guarding hand
From every peril on the land.
 O Spirit, whom the Father sent
To spread abroad the firmament;
O Wind of heaven, by thy might
Save all who dare the eagle’s flight,
And keep them by thy watchful care
From every peril in the air.

O Trinity of love and power,

Our brethren shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them whereso’er they go,
Thus evermore shall rise to thee
Glad praise from air, space, land, and sea.

American composer Claude T. Smith served with the 371st Army Band during the Korean
War. His 1975 setting of Eternal Father was dedicated to the United States Navy Band and
premiered at a Kennedy Center celebration of the band’s 50th anniversary. After a brief
fanfare, the largest portion of the piece consists of a tense, chromatic, angst-filled fugal
setting of fractions of the hymn tune, that is reminiscent of a perilous sea voyage (or the
many challenging times our nation, and military, have faced in our 250-year history). The
fugue builds itself into a frenzied musical squall, a single note from the chime parts the
clouds, then Smith presents a simple, peaceful chorale-setting of the hymn: first by the
French horns, then by the full band.

In the early 1980’s, British composer Nigel Hess made a series of trips to a small portion of
the East Coast of the United States (“an area that provides great extremes in the geography
and the people”). Upon his return to England, he was inspired to write his three East Coast
Pictures. The three movements are described in his own words:

Movement 1: Shelter Island is a small island situated near the end of Long
Island, a few hours drive east of New York. In the summer it becomes a
crowded tourist trap; but in the winter it is gloriously deserted and bravely
faces the onslaught of the turbulent Atlantic, shrouded in sea mists and
driving rain. This “picture” is a fond memory of a winter weekend on
Shelter Island.

Movement 2: In upstate New York lie the Catskills Mountains -- an

extraordinary combination of tranquility and power, peace and majesty.
Once seen, they call you back again and again.

Movement 3: New York -- or to be more precise, Manhattan. For anyone who

is familiar with this bizarre and wonderful city, here is a “picture" that
needs no explanation. For those not yet hooked, this is a foretaste of things
to come!

An American Elegy program notes will be delivered from the stage.

Stephen Collins Foster is known as the “father of American music” and was the most famous
songwriter of the nineteenth century. He wrote more than 200 songs, many of which are still
quite popular today, including “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Oh! Susanna,” “Old Folks at
Home,” “Camptown Races,” and “Beautiful Dreamer.” Due to language in many of his songs
that modern audiences would consider disparaging to African-Americans, as well as his
affiliation with minstrel shows (a form of entertainment that lampooned African Americans
as buffoonish, superstitious, lazy, and dim-witted), Foster has a problematic legacy today. As
with many stories from American history, however, Foster’s is more complicated than that.
“My Old Kentucky Home” is in fact an anti-slavery ballad, likely inspired by Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The song's popular and nostalgic theme of the loss of home
resonated with the public and further resolved to stimulate strong feelings in support of the
abolitionist movement in the United States. Famous African-American abolitionist Frederick
Douglass promoted the song, among other similar songs of the time period, in his
autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom as evoking a sentimental theme that promotes
and popularizes the cause of abolishing slavery in the United States. Douglass commented,
"They [My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!, etc.] are heart songs, and the finest feelings of
human nature are expressed in them. [They] can make the heart sad as well as merry, and
can call forth a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the sympathies for the slave", he stated,
"in which anti-slavery principles take root and flourish.”

Foster composed Gentle Annie in 1856. Tradition has that it was written in honor of Annie
Jenkins, the daughter of a grocer in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. However, Foster's biographer
and niece, Evelyn Foster Morneweck, disputes this and states that it is probably written in
honor of his cousin, Annie Evans, who died shortly before it was composed. Some sources say
it is Foster's farewell to his maternal grandmother, Annie Pratt McGinnis Hart. The text is:

Thou wilt come no more, gentle Annie,

Like a flow'r thy spirit did depart;
Thou art gone, alas! like the many
That have bloomed in the summer of my heart.

Chorus: Shall we never more behold thee;

Never hear thy winning voice again
When the Springtime comes gentle Annie,
When the wild flow'rs are scattered o'er the plain?

When thy downy cheeks were in their bloom;

Now I stand alone mid the flowers
While they mingle their perfumes o'er thy tomb.

Chorus

Near the silent spot where thou art laid,

And my heart bows down when I wander
By the streams and the meadows where we stray’d.

Chorus

Known as the "Dean of African-American Classical Composers,” William Grant Still composed

over 150 works, including five symphonies and eight operas. Until the 1950’s, his first
symphony “the Afro-American” was the most widely performed symphony by an American of
any race. He was the first African-American to have an opera performed by the New York
City Opera, and the first African-American to conduct a major American orchestra (the Los
Angeles Philharmonic in 1936). Still served in the United States Navy in World War I, before
being awarded scholarships to attend the Oberlin Conservatory. He also studied with French
composer Edgard Varèse.

Still’s impressionistic Summerland was originally the second of Three Visions (1936) for
piano, but was recast by the composer for various instrumentations. Lazy and relaxed, it
evokes a quiet, warm afternoon.
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is one of the titans of American art music.  A native New Yorker,
he went to France at age 21 and became the first American to study with the legendary Nadia
Boulanger.  His Organ Symphony, written for Boulanger, provided his breakthrough into
composition stardom.  After experimenting with many different styles, he became best known
for his idiomatic treatment of Americana, crafting such chestnuts as The Tender
Land (1954), Billy The Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944), from which
Variations on a Shaker Melody is drawn. He was also an acclaimed conductor and writer.

Appalachian Spring is justifiably one of Copland’s best known works. Among many other
accolades, it won him the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1945. It was written between 1942 and
1944 on a commission from the renowned choreographer Martha Graham and arts patron
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, to whom the ballet was ultimately dedicated. It used a 13-piece
ensemble of strings, woodwinds, and piano. Although it is now thought to be supremely
evocative of Americana and Appalachia in particular, Copland had nothing so specific in mind
when writing it: his working title was “Ballet for Martha.” The title was only settled after
staging began, taken from a stanza of a the Hart Crane poem, “The Dance:"

O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;

Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!

The ballet was premiered in a full staging at the Library of Congress on October 30, 1944,
with Graham herself dancing the lead role.

The variations performed this evening are taken from the seventh section of the ballet, which
Copland described as: “Calm and flowing/Doppio Movimento. Scenes of daily activity for the
Bride and her Farmer husband. There are five variations on a Shaker theme. The theme,
sung by a solo clarinet, was taken from a collection of Shaker melodies compiled by Edward
D. Andrews, and published under the title ‘The Gift to Be Simple.’ The melody borrowed and
used almost literally is called 'Simple Gifts.'" This section became one of the most
recognizable parts of the ballet, and thus of Copland’s entire oeuvre. Copland himself created
the wind band version of these Variations in 1958, changing little other than the
instrumentation. Thanks to Appalachian Spring, this simple Shaker melody, which had been
nearly forgotten for almost a century, has become ingrained in the American musical
consciousness.

-Copland program notes by Andy Pease

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Morten Johannes Lauridsen worked as a Forest Service
firefighter and lookout (on an isolated tower near Mt. St. Helens) before traveling south to
study composition at the University of Southern California with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens,
Robert Linn, and Harold Owen. He joined the USC faculty in 1967 and has been on their
faculty ever since. He now divides his time between Los Angeles and his home in the remote
San Juan Archipelago off the northern coast of Washington State. In 2006, Lauridsen was
named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007 he
received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his
composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth
that have thrilled audiences worldwide".

Lauridsen’s setting of O Magnum Mysterium (an ancient responsorial chant from the
Matins of Christmas) was commissioned in 1994 by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and is
widely regarded as the composition that launched his compositional career. At the premiere
concert, music director Paul Salamunovich told the audience, “Until now, Vittoria’s O
Magnum Mysterium has been the most beautiful and well recognized setting of this text
composed to date. I predict that will change after tonight.” The text of the chant is as follows:

O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the newborn Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!

The piece was set for wind band in 2003 by Lauridsen’s colleague at the USC Thornton School
of Music, H. Robert Reynolds.

Korean-American composer and conductor Travis J. Cross is Professor of Music and Chair of
the Herb Alpert School of Music at the University of California - Los Angeles, where he also
conducts the wind ensemble and directs the graduate wind conducting program. About Let
the Amen Sound, he writes:

Let the Amen Sound was commissioned by the Northshore Concert Band in memory of
Benjamin and Elizabeth (Betty) Zyer. Their son Dave, who plays in the clarinet section and
served for many years as board chair, believed the piece should reflect the deep faith his
parents shared, and after considering several different hymns, we decided to base the work on
Joachim Neander’s seventeenth-century chorale Lobe den Herren, known in English as
“Praise to the Lord.” The title comes from the final stanza of the hymn. (“Let the Amen sound
from His people again…”) My setting opens with a simple expression of innocence from which
the hymn tune emerges first in solo flute, accompanied by percussion and muted trumpets to
evoke the sound of liturgical bells. Solo clarinet and bassoon join, leading to a reverent
statement of the hymn by the full ensemble. The three variations that follow seek to portray
archetypal moments in our shared human experience: the playful exuberance of childhood,
the sentimental dance of youth, and the triumphant celebration of lives well lived.

Composer and bandleader Henry Fillmore was born into a family of religious music
publishers in Cincinatti, Ohio. In his youth, he mastered piano, guitar, violin, flute, and
trombone - but had to keep his trombone activities a secret, as his devout father considered it
an “uncouth and sinful instrument.” Eventually Henry’s lighthearted nature became
incompatible with the devout and pious Fillmore home, so after completing studies at the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, he ran away to join the circus. It was while traveling the
United States as a circus bandmaster that he met his wife, an exotic dancer named Mabel.
Fillmore eventually settled back in Cincinnati and took over the family business, converting it
from a publisher of religious music to one primarily focused on the distribution of his over 250
marches - many of which he published under a variety of pseudonyms to prevent flooding the
market with compositions by one composer. In 1938, Fillmore was advised by a physician that
he had only a few months to live; so he sold the publishing business and he and Mabel
relocated to Miami to live out his few remaining days away from the harsh Cincinnati
winters. The weather in Miami obviously suited him, as he lived another 18 years,
maintaining an active conducting and composing schedule in Florida.

Americans We was written in 1928 for Fillmore’s professional band in Cincinnati, for a
popular series of concerts they were performing at the Cincinnati Zoo. It is dedicated simply
“To All of Us.”
About our soloist:

Rocky Snyder, a native Delawarean, studied with Dr. David Blackinton (trumpet)
and Dr. Robert Streckfuss (euphonium) before receiving his Bachelors degree in Music
Education from the University of Delaware. After graduation, he taught instrumental
music for two years in Arlington, Virginia and the Delaware area before beginning a 40-
year career with the DuPont Company. He has performed with Johannes Brass, Newark
Symphony Orchestra and The Serenaders. Currently, he is the solo euphoniumist in the
Chesapeake Silver Cornet Brass Band which performs throughout the mid-Atlantic area.

About our guest conductor:

Dr. Christopher Dobbins is the Director of Instrumental Studies at Washington and 

Lee University, where he conducts the University Wind Ensemble and teaches music
theory and other courses in the department. Prior to his appointment at W&L, Chris was
Director of Bands & Brass Studies at Sul Ross State University and taught at Our Lady of
the Lake University, Texas A&M International University, and Saint Mary’s Hall College
Preparatory School.

Chris holds a Doctor of Education in music education from the University of Georgia
Hugh Hodgson School of Music, a Master of Music degree in trombone performance from
the University of Utah where he studied with Larry Zalkind, Jim Nova, and Dr. Donn
Schaefer. At Utah, he was a graduate teaching assistant for the Utah Bands, working with
the Marching Utes, gymnastics band, and serving as a guest conductor with the acclaimed
University of Utah Wind Ensemble. Chris also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in
trombone performance and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Hastings College,
where he was the institution's Theodore Presser Scholar in 2006.

Chris is a sought after conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. In addition to his

academic conducting engagements, he is active as an honor band conductor and music
festival conductor, conducting numerous performances including the 2012 West Texas
Honor Band and the 2009 Festival Choir at the International Trombone Festival in Aarhus,
Denmark. He has been a guest clinician at numerous marching, concert, and jazz festivals
throughout the south and southwest, and is often engaged as a guest clinician for high
school wind ensembles and marching bands working towards contest.

Chris maintains professional affiliations with the Texas Music Educators

Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, National Association for Music Education, the
International Trombone Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He currently resides in
beautiful Lexington, VA with his wife Heather, daughter Ginny, and a houseful of furry
children.
 Jordan E. Kinsey, music director and conductor
Chris Patterson, associate conductor
Flute French Horn
Max Dabby David Durham
Brooke Greenstein# Nicholas Greeson
Stacey Hartman Jill Mears
Leslie Munro Kayla Riepen
Marcy Parykaza Donald West

Jane Stewart
Trumpet
Oboe/English Horn Schyler Adkins
William Clamurro Jillian Bacon
Phoebe Walls Dylan Bottomley*
Chris Burkhart
Clarinet David Burkhart
Alexa Cherico Jaylah Hartsfield*
Judy Durante Brian Mahoney
Richard Foote Chris Patterson
Heather Heacock
Daniel Hunsicker Trombone
Bryan Jenkins David Czepukaitis
Kathleen McGrath Pamela Letts
Amanda Purcell Liam Shane#
Christine Kirk (bass) Frank Gazda (bass)
Tim McManus (bass) Clayton Riepen (bass)

Saxophone Euphonium

Rob Barbarita Mike D’Avino
Callie Keen* Glenn Friedenreich
Terry Stewart Rocky Snyder
Kevin VanSyckle
Tuba
Bassoon Jeffrey Leager
Ben Ables Al Start
Blair Clauss
Percussion
Anthony Cinque*
Max Dabby
Mike D’Avino
Richard Kelly
Andrew McCutchon
Clayton Riepen
 Delaware Winds Mission Statement:
Delaware Winds is a semi-professional wind ensemble,
comprised of music educators, freelance musicians, and
current college music students from Delaware and
surrounding states. The ensemble performs the finest
literature available for wind band, and is intentional in
programming works by under-represented voices in the wind
band medium: specifically female and African- American
composers. Delaware Winds rehearsals provide a musical
outlet and networking and professional development
opportunity for current and rising music educators.

Special thanks to:

Capital School District

Central Middle School

Mr. Jeffrey Leager, band director

Our friends, families, and patrons