Ellis Island: The Dream of America
Ellis Island: The Dream of America is a work for actors and orchestra with projected images by American composer Peter Boyer, composed in 2001-02, commissioned by the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut. The work combines first-person narrations of seven immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island between 1910 and 1940, selected by Boyer from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, with Boyer’s original orchestral music. The work has received over 170 performances by more than 75 orchestras. A recording of the work released on the Naxos record label was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in the 48th annual Grammy Awards. In April 2017, performances by Pacific Symphony of "Ellis Island: The Dream of America" were filmed for broadcast on PBS’ "Great Performances" series in the 2017-18 broadcast season.
USS Ellis (DD-154)
"Ellis" was recommissioned on 16 October 1939, and from her bases at Charleston and Norfolk, patrolled the east coast concentrating on anti-submarine warfare. Between 22 June and 21 July 1941, she sailed from Newport to escort transports carrying the first Marines to the occupation of Iceland, and a month later sailed to base at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland for escort duty to Iceland and to mid-ocean rendezvous.