Asbury Professor featured in International Music Festival

January 28, 2022

Asbury’s Professor of Worship Arts, Dan Pinkston, was featured in the 2021 Seoul International Composers Festival for his fantasy composition, “One Dawn, One Dusk,” inspired by three Korean folk songs.

“It was a real honor to have my piece included in this international festival, said Pinkston, “The title and tone of the piece I wrote flow from my belief that the image of God is in each person, and I was so thankful for such an expressive and powerful performance by the festival musicians.

Composers were prompted to take Korean folk songs and develop them in a different harmonic context. Pinkston’s “One Dawn, One Dusk” score was fashioned by nature images and the notion that dawn and dusk are shared by different people in various locations at the same time.

“I chose three Korean folk songs that were evocative of nature and bird songs, and I put them into this new, impressionistic distinctly modern and western piece,” said Pinkston during his interview for his piece’s festival segment.

The online showing of the December concert can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix2Bg9vrTwQ

Pinkston’s accomplishment took place nearly four months after his faculty scholarship trip to Denali National Park, Fairbanks and Twin Bears Camp to compose a chamber piece in three days while being immersed in the Alaskan wilderness.

Read and hear more about Pinkston’s Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and wilderness-composed piece, “Surge,”