Dan Locklair

The American composer Dan Locklair is especially well regarded for his sacred choral music, which has been performed all over the world. He has also written an opera, a ballet, orchestral music, chamber music, and organ music, having begun his career on the latter instrument. Locklair was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1949. He was playing the organ professionally when he was just 14. Locklair attended Mars Hill College (now University) in North Carolina and went on to Union Theological Seminary in New York for a Master of Sacred Music degree, and then to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, for a doctorate. From 1973 to 1982 Locklair taught at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, and was active as a Presbyterian church musician in Binghamton. In 1982 he became professor and composer-in-residence at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he has remained ever since. He has continued to play the organ and has given recitals at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. Thomas Church, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, all in New York. Locklair's Since Dawn for narrator, chorus, and orchestra, a setting of a poem by Maya Angelou, was commissioned for the 1993 inauguration of U.S. president Bill Clinton, and a section of Rubrics, among his most popular organ works, was performed at the funeral of President Ronald Reagan in 2004. Locklair's works have been performed by major orchestras and choirs across the U.S. and beyond, including the Helsinki Philharmonic, the BBC Singers, and the Elmer Iseler Singers of Toronto. The list of countries in which his works have been played is long and includes Japan, Korea, and Russia; he was the first American composer invited to have his music performed at the Czech Festival of Choral Arts, to which he has made multiple visits. Locklair's long list of awards includes an American Guild of Organists Composer of the Year honor in 1996, a Friedheim Award from New York's Kennedy Center, and multiple ASCAP awards. Recordings of his music have appeared on various labels including Koch International, Ondine, and Naxos. A performance of his Symphony No. 2 ("America"), with Kirk Trevor conducting the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, appeared on the latter imprint in 2019.