Dan Forrest

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Daniel Ernest Forrest, Jr. (b. 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 teaches music theory and composition at Bob Jones University, and his sacred music appears in the catalogs of nine publishers, including Hinshaw, Hal Leonard, Beckenhorst, and Chorister’s Guild. His compositions include choral, instrumental, orchestral, and wind band works.^[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.^[5] 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.^[6]

On February 11, 2007, Forrest's "Arise, Shine!" was given its world premiere at Carnegie Hall, ^[7] 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 19th, 2007 before the composer's thirtieth birthday. Besides his concert works, Forrest has also composed "sing-able, Bible-based songs" for children.^[8]

[edit] References

• Dan Forrest website