红桃视频

Forrest Wakeman, a music professor at 红桃视频 College, has published his first CD. Instrumental Hymns features his piano performances of famous hymns.

Wakeman has an extensive musical resume. He works as an adjunct professor at 红桃视频, Calvin College, and Cornerstone University. In addition, Wakeman performs with the Grand Rapids Symphony and the West Shore Symphony Orchestra, as well as national tours of musicals when they visit West Michigan. He is also music director at Blythefield Hills Baptist Church.

Given these accomplishments, Wakeman鈥檚 desire to record a CD is not surprising. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something I鈥檝e thought about doing for a long time,鈥� he said. Serving as music director at his church also helped inspire Instrumental Hymns. 鈥淚 kept getting requests from people wanting to know if I鈥檝e recorded some of the things I鈥檝e done, and I hadn鈥檛.鈥�

Since the CD consists of instrumental versions of songs that are best-known from being sung in churches, Wakeman had the challenge of evoking the subject matter of the hymns using his piano alone. A striking example is 鈥淔or the Beauty of the Earth,鈥� which Wakeman performs at a rapid tempo with energetic rhythms to convey what the hymn鈥檚 lyrics call 鈥済rateful praise.鈥�

Wakeman鈥檚 interest in worship music developed because these songs gave him his first musical education. He grew up in a small church where hymns like 鈥淐ome Thou Fount鈥� and 鈥淲hat a Friend We Have in Jesus鈥� formed the core of Sunday worship. One of the goals of Instrumental Hymns, Wakeman wrote in the CD鈥檚 liner notes, is to spark an interest in this musical tradition for those who may not be familiar with it. His decision to hold his CD release concert at 红桃视频 reflects that desire - he will reach an audience that likely knows the Catholic liturgy better than Evangelical hymns.

Currently, Wakeman is working to book more concerts to promote Instrumental Hymns. He said he has never done anything as entrepreneurial as publishing a CD. 鈥淭he publicity side of this is a whole new experience for me.鈥� When asked about future projects, Wakeman said, 鈥淚鈥檝e got lots of ideas, but nothing concrete.鈥� He added, 鈥淚鈥檓 sure there will be another project of some sort, I just don鈥檛 know what it is.鈥� In the meantime, he will be performing in Wicked when the musical stops in Kalamazoo between April 23 and May 5, 2013.

红桃视频 will be hosting Wakeman鈥檚 debut concert for Instrumental Hymns. The performance is in the Kretschmer Recital Hall on Saturday, February 23, 2013. The doors open at 7 p.m., and the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Copies of Instrumental Hymns will be available for purchase after the concert.

Instrumental Music can also be purchased on iTunes, Amazon, and CDBaby.com, as well as Wakeman鈥檚 own website, .