Dan Forrest
Daniel Ernest Forrest, Jr. (born January 7, 1978) is a composer and teacher. Forrest was born in Elmira, New York and received a B.Mus. and an M.Mus. in Piano Performance from Bob Jones University. He completed a D.M.A. in composition at the University of Kansas in 2007 and has studied composition with Joan Pinkston, Dwight Gustafson, James Barnes, and Alice Parker. He serves as chairman of the department of music theory and composition at Bob Jones University. Forrest's compositions include choral, instrumental, orchestral, and wind band works. His church music appears in the catalogs of ten publishers, including Hinshaw, Hal Leonard, Beckenhorst, Shawnee Press, and Chorister’s Guild.[1]
In 2005 Forrest won the John Ness Beck Foundation composition award (with noted composer John Rutter taking second place).[2] His winning composition, a choral setting of "The King Of Love My Shepherd Is" (Beckenhorst Press) has sold over 40,000 copies.[3] In 2005 Forrest also won the American Choral Directors Association Raymond Brock Composition Competition. His winning piece, Selah, was premiered at the ACDA convention in 2006.[4] In 2006, he won a first prize in the 2006 Vanguard Voices Choral Composition Contest (Emerging Composers category). His winning piece, "You Are The Music," was premiered in June 2007.[3] In May 2006, Forrest won an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award for selected movements from Words From Paradise, an extended work for a cappella choir, and was presented his award at Lincoln Center.[3] On Christmas Day 2008, National Public Radio featured Forrest's "Carol of Joy" on Performance Today.[5] In May 2009, Forrest's "Arise Shine" and "You Are The Music" were performed at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.[6] In 2009 Forrest also won the Raabe Prize of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians for his "In Paradisium"[7] and was a finalist in the Frank Ticheli International Wind Band Composition Contest.[8]
On February 11, 2007, Forrest's "Arise, Shine!" was given its world premiere at Carnegie Hall,[9] and in celebration of his return to the faculty of Bob Jones University later that year, the BJU University Chorale and Concert Choir presented the first all-Forrest concert on October 19, 2007 before the composer's thirtieth birthday. Besides his concert works, Forrest has also composed "sing-able, Bible-based songs" for children.[10]
In May 2012 Forrest plans to leave the BJU faculty to become assistant editor to Craig Courtney at Beckenhorst Press while devoting more time to composition.[11]
References
- ^ Forrest website. Forrest's instrumental works are published by C. Alan Publications. He has his own choral series with Hinshaw Music, "The Music of Dan Forrest."
- ^ John Ness Beck Foundation awards. In 2009, Forrest won a second-place award.
- ^ a b c Forrest bio at Vanguard Voices
- ^ Brock awards
- ^ "Carol of Joy" was performed by The Brigham Young University Choirs and Orchestra with conductor Ronald Staheli at the Harris Fine Arts Center, Provo, Utah, and in October 2008 the University of Utah Singers released a Christmas album titled "Carol of Joy", which featured the song. See University of Utah combined choirs concert performance video of "Carol of Joy"
- ^ Forrest website. The same month "You Are the Music" was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
- ^ ALCM Raabe prizes
- ^ Ticheli contest
- ^ Carnegie Hall program. The Shawnee Mission East Choraliers, under the direction of Tracy Resseguie, performed "Arise, Shine!" on the same program with Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna (1997).
- ^ Kids 4 Truth website. A sample song is provided.
- ^ Dan Forrest website.