Composition

Forrest Covington (b.1957) began preparatory studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying piano with Sherrill Martin and composition with Thomas Brosh. He then attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, studying piano with Bela Nagy, Clifton Matthews, and Ann Epperson, and composition with Robert Ward and Sherwood Schaeffer.

Covington attended the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1977 until 1984, taking an undergraduate and a master's degree in composition. His teachers were Donald Erb and Eugene O'Brien in composition, and in piano, William Kurzban and Olga Radosaljevich. After graduation from the Cleveland Institute, Covington pursued post graduate studies at the University of Iowa from 1985 to 1987.

 Covington was a recipient of a BMI Young Composer's Award in 1983 for his orchestral work Chthonic Mass, which was given its premiere in a joint concert of the North Carolina Symphony and the Piedmant Triad/Winston Salem symphony in 1991. In the late 1980's and 1990's, he operated a recording studio, Mouse Studios, in Burlington, NC, recording all kinds of popular and electronic music. He has performed as a pianist and composer at various venues and music festivals in North Carolina, including recitals at the Carrboro Arts Center and the Carrboro Music Festival, and North Carolina ComposerWorks concerts.

Recently, two of his orchestral works, "A Winter's Poem", and "Anagoge", have been recorded and released as part of the "Masterworks of the New Era" series on the ERM label. In April 2007, "A Winter's Poem" was formally premiered by the UNL Symphony under the baton of Tyler White.

Recently Covington has been exploring vocal and choral composition. His setting of H.W.Longfellow's Serenade won an Award of Distinction in the Longfellow Chorus International Choral Composition.