The first week of January 1972, the Southern Oregon College Music Department in Ashland, Oregon presented 7 special concerts to mark the opening of its new building. One of those was presented by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble under the direction of M. Max McKee. The opening composition was a commission work prepared especially for the occasion by Jerry Neil Smith.

Smith was then clarinet teacher and head of the composition faculty at Colorado University. Max had attended CU in the summer of 1971 to work on his doctorate in clarinet performance. While there he took private lessons from Smith, played in the Summer Band under Hugh McMillen and lined up the commission of "Fanfare and Celebration."

The work was published by C.L. Barnhouse in 1976.