March Transforms was composed between October of 1985 and January of 1986 for the UC San Diego Wind Ensemble at the request of the director, Cindy Earnest, to whom the work is dedicated. The work was first performed by that ensemble on 2 March 1986, and was subsequently selected by the Virginia Band Director's National Association for presentation at the "Symposium XII for New Band Music" in February of 1987. It has since been perfomed by several major university wind ensembles throughout the country. In 1989, March Transforms received the Grand Prize Award in the Third Annual Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonian Competition.

The structure of the work is based entirely upon that of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" March, evidenced (at least fundamentally) in nearly every aspect of the work's construction, including form, pitch, rhythm, and even instrumentation. The result is not so much a march in itself, as it is a distillation of the Sousa classic.