Join Warren Cook and composer-in-residence Dan Forrest in a premier performance of his new masterwork, CREATION, at the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. The festival chorus will perform with the New York City Chamber Orchestra and soloists as part of MCP’s Masterwork Series. Singers will represent a variety of ensembles from across the country.

Warren Cook is the founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed and award winning Rivertree Singers. Cook earned the DMA in choral conducting performance at the University of South Carolina and has studied at Westminster Choir College and Bob Jones University.  As Director of Choral Activities at BJU he conducted the two premier choral organizations and oversaw a five-choir graded program enrolling nearly 300 students. His choirs have been auditioned performers at international and national events including NAfME, ACDA and the World Choral Festival in Seoul, Korea.

Cook regularly appears across the United States as adjudicator, clinician and conductor for choral festivals. Each summer he conducts the Rivertree Singers & Friends Choral Festival. In 2019 over 120 choral musicians from across the US joined Rivertree Singers and Festival Orchestra to perform Robert Shaw’s last contibution to the choral repertory: an unpublished English edition of Brahm’s German Requiem. Under Cook’s leadership Rivertree Singers won the grand prize in the Oxford University Press Advent Competition and has also received awards for The American Prize. In 2019  Cook was honored with the South Carolina Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association’s first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award.  His wife Jean Flaugher Cook has been his life-long collaborative pianist.

Dan Forrest (b. 1978) has been described as having “an undoubted gift for writing beautiful music….that is truly magical” (NY Concert Review), with works hailed as “magnificent, very cleverly constructed sound sculpture” (Classical Voice), and  “superb writing…full of spine-tingling moments” (Salt Lake Tribune). His music has sold millions of copies, has received numerous awards and distinctions, and has become well established in the repertoire of choirs around the world via festivals, recordings, radio/TV broadcasts, and premieres in prominent international venues.

Dan’s work ranges from small choral works to instrumental solo works, wind ensemble works, and extended multi-movement works for chorus and orchestra. His Requiem for the Living (2013) and Jubilate Deo (2016) have become standard choral/orchestral repertoire for ensembles around the world, and his more recent major works LUX: The Dawn From On High (2018) and the breath of life (2020) have also received critical acclaim.

Dan holds a doctorate in composition and a master’s degree in piano performance, and served for several years as a professor and department head (music theory and composition) in higher education. He currently serves as Editor at Beckenhorst Press, Chair of the American Choral Director’s Association Composition Initiatives Committee, and Artist-In-Residence at Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church (Greenville, SC). Details about Dan and his work can be found at www.danforrest.com.

Masterwork Series PAckages

Not currently singing with an ensemble? This event will open to individuals later this fall!

Contact us for further details and pricing