Lighthouse Fanfares

The Lighthouse Fanfares were commissioned over two years for the Lighthouse Brass by Bill Lucas, a dear friend and my former teacher. Each fanfare portrays a different lighthouse somewhere on Michigan's coastline.

I. South Haven Pier’s lighthouse stands at the entrance to the Black River on the Western coastline. The red-and-black light is connected to the shore by a catwalk, and especially in the summer, the pier is a popular destination for families and kids who take the long jump into the lake’s waters.

II. The Whitefish Point Light on the Upper Peninsula greets all vessels entering or leaving Lake Superior. It marks one of the most treacherous spots in the Great Lakes, and memorializes the innumerable shipwrecks in Lake Superior, including the infamous 1975 wreck of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, which claimed the lives of all 27 men aboard.

III. Point Iroquois Light, also on Whitefish Bay, takes its name from the massacre of Iroquois tribe members by the Chippewa in 1662. The lighthouse has been said to be the focal point of all sorts of paranormal activity.

IV. Big Red resides in Holland, on the Western coastline; and as its name suggests, it’s painted a brilliant fire-engine red. The visually striking (or even gaudy) appearance is unique among Michigan’s lighthouses — Big Red is the most photographed lighthouse in the state, notorious for its outlandish appearance.

V. The Ludington Light, on Pere Marquette Harbor, stands 57 feet tall, made of steel paneling in a square-based pyramid. Ludington is painted black and white, and it stands on a long jetty away from the coast. In the frigid Michigan winters, the lake around the jetty freezes; and from the shore, you can see the light surrounded by a tundra of snow, and often draped in soft sheaths of ice itself.