dan forrest was born in breesport, new york, and began piano lessons with his elementary school music teacher at age eight. in high school forrest won numerous piano awards, accompanied honors choirs, and performed the grieg piano concerto with the elmira symphony. he majored in piano at bob jones university, earning a b.mus. and an m.mus. in piano performance, studying advanced theory and composition with joan pinkston and dwight gustafson. after teaching piano in south carolina for three years, he moved to kansas where he earned a d.m.a. in composition from the university of kansas, studying with wind band composer james barnes. forrest also studied with alice parker, whom he counts as a foremost influence. forrest's compositions include choral, instrumental, orchestral, and wind band works. his music appears in the catalogs of numerous publishers, primarily beckenhorst press (church music) and hinshaw music (concert music). in 2018, he began self-publishing his own concert music the music of dan forrest, which is distributed by beckenhorst press. his published works have sold millions of copies worldwide.