David Danner

Born: Tulsa, Oklahoma, August 8, 1951

Died: Nashville, Tennessee, February 6, 1993

Vocation: As an eleven-year-old boy, David Danner always seemed to be hanging around the piano at church, asking the “how” and “why” questions endlessly. Lorene Simpson, the pianist at Crown Heights Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, noticed his keen ear and observations, and soon suggested to his parents that he take lessons. By age 13 his development as a pianist was underway. Certain that he would be ridiculed for taking piano, he often concealed his books when going to his lessons, yet he kept at it, and willingly played the piano for any church group or meeting needing a pianist. Joining the adult choir at church gave him additional opportunities to hone his sight reading and musicianship skills, as did playing tuba in his high school band. Opportunities to play the piano continued to grow throughout his teenage years. A monthly Oklahoma City youth rally became a regular gig, and when his high school discovered his keyboard skills, he soon was playing piano or organ for numerous school functions. As word continued to spread about this talented teen, the number of invitations grew, including guest appearances with the Junior Symphony and the Oklahoma Symphony. Yet his greatest challenge as a teenage pianist was still ahead: convincing Gene Bartlett, state music director for the Oklahoma Baptist Convention, to allow him to play for the summer youth camps at Fall Creek Falls Assembly (founded 1917). Bartlett served as music director at Falls Creek from 1954 to 1979, longer than anyone ever had . Through determined persistence and being in the right place at the right time, he eventually did convince Bartlett that he could do the job, and was assembly pianist, playing four consecutive weeks for four consecutive years. Weddings, funerals and nursing homes provided additional playing opportunities throughout his high school years. It was during these years that he tried his hand at composing, joining his first melody to the text of the hymn, Since Jesus Came into My Heart. He became pianist for Olivet Baptist Church in Oklahoma City at about the time he graduated from high school.

Danner was educated at Central State University (now the University of Central Oklahoma), in Edmond, with a double major in tuba and piano. In December 1972, between semesters of his final year, he married his wife, Judy, and two days following graduation, they were in Nashville, Tennessee, where he had just been hired as an assistant editor in the church music department of the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention). With encouragement from his employer, he began working on his Master of Music degree at the George Peabody College for Teachers (Vanderbilt University), in Nashville. Two children were born while he completed his degree and continued to work full-time, with other responsibilities including those of music editor and production manager. In all, he had a total tenure of 19 years, from 1973-1990. Always a student, he never tired of studying conductors, and found opportunities to watch them at work, singing in an opera workshop to watch the interaction of conductor, choir, and orchestra, or visiting personally visiting a famous conductor, as he did with Aaron Copland (1900-1990), in New Mexico. In the final years of his life, he worked as a free-lance composer and arranger. He served as pianist at Judson Baptist Church in Nashville for a number of years.

Accomplishments: Danner was a prolific composer of church anthems, musicals, and instrumental pieces, with more than 120 titles to his credit. Joy Comes in the Morning, a musical drama for Easter released in 1981, was among his most successful major works. A number of his hymns are published in contemporary hymnals, including Jesus Is the Song (simpson, named for Lorene Simpson, his first church pianist), Holy Is His Name (hicks), and O God of Prophets, Known of Old (cothen).

Danny R. Jones


SIMPSON
COTHEN
HICKS