Dan Forrest has been described as “a composer of substance” (Columbus Dispatch), with “superb choral writing…full of spine-tingling moments” (Salt Lake Tribune). Born in 1978, Dan is a pianist turned composer whose choral music has already established a lasting presence in the US and abroad.
Dan’s choral works have received numerous awards and distinctions, including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award, the ACDA Raymond Brock Award, Meet The Composer grants, the ALCM Raabe Prize, and many others. His “A Basque Lullaby” for wind band was included in the recently-released Volume 8 of the well-known Teaching Music Through Performance In Band series. His music has been performed in leading venues across the country and around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, and on NPR’s “Performance Today.”
Dan has a choral series in his name with Hinshaw Music and serves as associate editor at Beckenhorst Press. He has served as an adjudicator for numerous composition contests (including the John Ness Beck Foundation and the Southern Division MTNA), has been recognized in Who’s Who In America multiple times, and currently serves on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal The Artistic Theologian. Dan keeps a full schedule of commissions, workshops, and residencies with churches, universities, and community choirs, and remains active as an accompanist and recording producer.
2011-2012 performances of Dan’s music include the premiere of Entreat Me Not To Leave You at the World Choral Symposium in Argentina, a piece commissioned for a JFK memorial concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and a 30-minute concert segment of his music for chorus and orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City.
Dan holds a doctoral degree in composition from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in piano performance. He is a former professor of music at Bob Jones University, where he served as Department Head of Music Theory and Composition for several years.