Graduate student wins music award

By By Gabriella Souza (Contact)

Friday, August 26, 2005

When Dan Forrest, Ottawa doctoral composition student at the University of Kansas, received a call from a spokesperson for the John Ness Beck award competition, he was shocked by what he heard.

The spokesperson told him that he had won the first place award of $5,000 for his choral setting of “The King of Love My Shepherd Is.” The fact that a doctoral student won the first prize is uncommon, said James Barnes, professor of music and dance and Forrest’s composition teacher.

“This award is very prestigious,” Barnes said. “It is the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize for sacred choral music.”

Jared Soares/KANSAN

Dan Forrest, Ottawa, Music and Dance graduate student pursing a D.M.A. in composition, poses in his office. The upstate New York native was recently awarded the $5,000 John Ness Beck first place award for his outstanding selected sacred choral anthem.

Forrest later learned that he had beat his idol, world-renonwned composer John Rutter, for first prize. Rutter won the second prize for his setting of Psalm 150.

“John Rutter is pretty much my hero,” Forrest said. “It really is absurd, he’s a thousand times the composer I am.”

Forrest’s piece was nominated to be included in the competition by two judges whom he personally knew.

One of the judges was his former composition teacher at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., Forrest said. The other was a fellow composer who publishes with the same publishing company as Forrest.

The competition had seven judges, each of whom nominated up to five pieces to be considered. The judges then rated the pieces in order from best to worst. Each composition had to have been published in the past year, Barnes said.

Forrest received both his undergraduate and masters degrees from Bob Jones University. He is on leave as a faculty member at Bob Jones University while pursuing his doctorate at the University. This fall, in addition to studying composition, he is teaching a harmony class, Barnes said.

“He’s a brilliant composer and an excellent musician,” Barnes said.

Forrest said he was happy with his decision to come to the University. He said he found it a comfortable and encouraging place to be.

“They have this great attitude that other schools don’t have that is, ‘We want to find out what you want to do and do everything we can to get you there,’” said Forrest.

— Edited by Jayme Wiley

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