Danny English Honored in the Global Best Creative Awards Hall of Fame — Platinum Prize for “Colluctatio: A Miniature Piano Concerto”

Danny English has been awarded the Platinum Prize in Original Composition with his work “Colluctatio: a miniature piano concerto” at the Global Best Creative Awards 2025. The Global Best Creative Awards (GBCA) is an international platform open to musicians, artists, designers, filmmakers, and creators of all disciplines, honoring innovation, artistry, and excellence. This Hall of Fame feature celebrates English’s creative journey and the artistry behind his award-winning composition.

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A graduate of the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music with a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Danny English is the Director of Music Ministries at the Aspinwall Presbyterian Church. For the past ten years, Danny has taught students of all ages the art of storytelling with music through his insightful piano, theory, and composition lessons. As a composer, Danny’s music has been performed in concerts and at festivals across the United States, has won awards on the international level, and has earned him the distinction of being named a 2025 Suncoast Composer Fellow. His music has even been sent into space as part of the MoonArk Project.  Danny also designs custom music cues for content creators and for media, including recent projects for the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show and for the Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Project.  In honor of his years of teaching and m

aking music in the community, the Borough of Aspinwall declared April 9, 2025 to be “Danny English Day.” For more, please go to dannyenglishmusic.com.  

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Colluctatio—a Latin word meaning “struggle” or “agony.” Unfortunately, for the last several years, I have been in the midst of a very serious struggle of my own. Facing a daily battle with chronic disease, I desperately wait for a life-saving kidney transplant. As my condition worsens, I am engulfed in a myriad of emotions. First are anger and resentment...”Why me?” “What did I do to deserve this?” Then l have times of solemn reflection, thinking back on the active life and rewarding career I once enjoyed. I occasionally experience moments when I am almost hopeful and I tackle my challenging circumstances with sheer grit and determination. Then I endure one or more of my disabling physical ailments and am reminded of my own mortality. I tried to capture all of these emotions in my piece, vividly portraying my struggle from its distressing origins to its ending, which is yet unknown. I remain hopeful that I will receive a kidney transplant and be able to resume leading a fulfilling life, but I am agonizingly aware that many people die while waiting for a matching organ. I dedicate this composition to all the individuals in the world who are battling chronic illnesses and are in need of life-saving transplants. 

Also, I have always enjoyed film music.  In fact, I've recently been involved with several projects for film and/or media and I look forward to doing even more.  Thus, I wanted to create a piece that was "cinematic" and filled with drama and emotion that one could imagine on a big screen.  And as an educator, one of my teachings that I instill in my students is that the best music tends to either convey strong emotions or tells a captivating story, or in many cases, does both.  I wanted to create a strong example of that.