The High School Choral Festival Concert will be held on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m. at Dordt University’s B.J. Haan Auditorium. There will also be a Community Choir Evening of Worship on Thursday, April 11 at 7 p.m. in the B.J. Haan Auditorium.
The High School Choral Festival Concert will be held on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m. at Dordt University’s B.J. Haan Auditorium. There will also be a Community Choir Evening of Worship on Thursday, April 11 at 7 p.m. in the B.J. Haan Auditorium.
Thirteen high school choirs from six different states—Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Michigan—will participate in the event. Choirs range in size from 23 members to 140 members. The festival will include clinics for each choir, solo and ensemble clinics, a massed choir rehearsal, and an evening concert featuring performances by each of the visiting choirs, all Dordt choirs, and the massed choirs.
Choral Composer Dan Forrest will serve as composer-in-residence for the festival. Forrest will give workshops and lead discussions on performing and composing choral music as well as how his music and faith interact.
Described as having “an undoubted gift for writing beautiful music…that is truly magical” (NY Concert Review), Forrest’s music spans a wide spectrum of genres and difficulty, ranging from extended major works for chorus and orchestra and significant concert choral repertoire to more accessible works for church and community choirs, as well as instrumental works ranging from wind ensemble pieces to solo instrumental sonatas.
Forrest’s work has become well established in the choral repertoire in the U.S. and around the world, and has received numerous awards and distinctions including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award, the ACDA Raymond Brock Award, the ALCM Raabe Prize, and many others. His choral works have been recorded by professional choirs including Seraphic Fire and VOCES8, have been featured on the BBC Proms series and numerous national US radio and TV broadcasts, and are regularly performed in Carnegie Hall choral festivals. Forrest’s international invitations include major concerts with choirs from the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Italy, and many others. His major works have become standard choral/orchestral repertoire for ensembles around the world, with Requiem for the Living (2013) receiving over 1,000 performances around the world.
The April 11 event will serve as a time of worship through choral music, Scripture readings, litanies, meditations, and other musical reflections. A combined Community Choir will sing four choral pieces composed or arranged by Forrest. The Dordt choirs will join the Community Choir for two of those pieces as well as sing a few other Forrest works on their own.
About Dordt University
As an institution of higher education committed to the Reformed Christian perspective, Dordt University equips students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to work toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life. Located in Sioux Center, Iowa, Dordt is a comprehensive university named to the best college lists by U.S. News and World Report, the Wall Street Journal, Times Higher Education, Forbes.com, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review.
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