The composer writes:

I was composing the fanfare Kāu Mea Nui Progress(ions) as Lahaina began to burn on August 8, 2023. I felt

heaviness in the days following the fires, as the full extent of the devastation and human loss began to be known.

Searching for meaning amidst this tragedy, I was reminded of Pilahi Paki’s words to the people of Hawaiʻi and in her

and Eddie Kamae’s mele, “Aloha Chant”: “O ke aloha nō, kāu mea nui” –– “Your greatest gift is aloha”. Their

message to proclaim and to share aloha in our words and deeds seems more important now than ever, as we rebuild,

heal, and learn from the tragedy. Meaningful change, or progress, happens slowly, and the fanfare’s chord progression,

beginning with the bassoons, reflects this in slow, incremental one-note changes. Over the course of the

four-and-a-half minute piece, this slow progression spreads from the winds to the brass and to the strings. An idea

became central to the work in the days after August 8: the more people hear a message, the more courageous they

become in sharing it. The ʻmessage’ of the fanfare is heard in its gradually increasing repetition of the “Aloha Chant”

phrase, “O ke aloha nō, kāu mea nui”. Beginning with one solitary trumpet sharing the 11-note message (6-notes for

“o ke aloha nō” and 5-notes for “kāu mea nui”), more and more instruments begin to recognize its goodness (oboe,

horn, timpani, etc.) and increasingly adopt and share it out, until it finally explodes (Rehearsal letter D) with the whole

orchestra playing the chorus or ʻhuiʻ of the “Aloha Chant” mele in full context: “Aloha mai, e nā Hawaiʻi, o ke aloha

nō, kāu mea nui, e ō mai e na Hawaiʻi, nā pua lei nā mamo” (Aloha o Hawaiʻi, your greatest gift is aloha; Answer the

call o Hawaiʻi, Beloved children and generations to come”).

The story of Lahaina and Hawaiʻi is not over, so the ending of the fanfare has been left open. As we continue to heal

and grow in our capacity for living aloha, perhaps a more conclusive ending awaits us in our future.