Mid-January Updates
This is a crazy month! I’m spending almost every evening (and all day Saturdays) in the recording studio with the BJU Singers/Orchestra, working on the new Soundforth CD. I knew when I agreed to help produce it that it’d be a crazy schedule, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a VERY long time, and had to take the opportunity when it was offered.
While it’s been a long and sometimes tiring process, I think it’s going to have been worth every minute of it. The CD is a fabulous collection of choral anthems (can’t give away too much here, but the CD is entitled “King of Love” if that gives some of you any hint what the title track is…). Warren Cook’s artistic direction of chorus, orchestra, soloists, etc, has been a delight and an inspiration to work with- we’ve had an absolutely wonderful time working together. There are three or four of my own anthems on the recording, and I got to do the scoring for 6-7 of the anthems, too- from string quartets to harp/flute to large orchestrations. The process of writing them and then helping produce them is extremely rewarding and educational…not to mention sometimes moving. Today when I heard the strings, brass, and winds all come together for the first time on “King of Love”, I choked back tears- which almost never happens with my own music anymore.
Anyway…a couple more weeks, and, Lord willing, we’ll have the CD recorded, mixed, and off to be duplicated. I’m eager for it to be premiered at BJU’s Bible Conference in March, and then to be spread abroad.
In the meantime….I’m making some progress on “in paradisum…”, the pieces for BJU’s Commencement Concert in May. It’s finally starting to define its own terms, which is a good sign…but I have quite a ways to go to have score and parts ready by the mid- February deadline.
I’m also starting to gear up for our trip to Houston in early February- where I’ll be the composer-in-residence for a week at Houston Baptist University. We know the choral department there from when they premiered “Selah” at the ACDA Convention in St Louis, and we’re looking forward to seeing old friends, making new ones, and making music together for a week. The week will culminate in an all-Forrest concert which includes several of my church anthems, selections from Words From Paradise, the Three Nocturnes, You Are The Music, and, (!) the world premiere of the organ/brass/percussion version of Arise, Shine!
