Benjamin Harlan

Born: Louisiana, March 11, 1954
Vocation: Harlan’s career has spanned a number of church music-related fields including positions as a church music minister, seminary faculty member, concert performer, clinician, composer and arranger. He earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Baylor University, Waco, Texas, (1976 and 1979 respectively), and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 1981. He has served numerous churches on a full-time and part-time or interim basis as a minister of music, pianist or organist. He was an associate professor of church music and chair of the department at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from 1989-1994, then served terms as dean and professor in the school of church music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1995-2005, before returning to New Orleans as professor and chair of the music school, where he has served since 2005. He has served as a clinician or guest minister in more than half of the fifty United States, as well as in South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.
Accomplishments: Harlan has gained an international reputation as a composer and arranger of choral, keyboard, handbell and congregational music whose hundreds of titles are represented in the catalogs of numerous music publishers. He received his first award from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1990, and has received numerous other awards since that time. He also is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the Baptist Church Music Conference. He has written or arranged numerous hymns, and his music has been used with the lyrics of numerous authors including Jesus Came to Dwell Among Us (Luttrell); Holy Presence, Holy Teacher (Murray); and Children Are a Gift from Heaven (Simons), which have all been set to his tune, harlan.

Danny R Jones

HARLAN