Jake Runestad

Jake Runestad (born 20 May 1986) is a Grammy-nominated American composer and conductor of classical music based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has composed music for a wide variety of musical genres and ensembles, but has achieved greatest acclaim for his work in the genres of opera, orchestral music, choral music, and wind ensemble. One of his principal collaborators for musical texts has been the poet Todd Boss.

Biography

Runestad was born in Rockford, Illinois. His post-secondary education in music began at Eastern Illinois University, which he attended in the years 2004 and 2005. He received his first degree in music (a B.S. in Music Education) from Winona State University, which he attended from 2005 until 2009, then pursued graduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University between 2009 and 2011 to earn a M.Mus. degree in music composition. His teachers at the Peabody Conservatory included Kevin Puts. He has also studied with the composer Libby Larsen and worked with Bernard Rands, David Lang, Tania León, John Musto, Christopher Rouse, Jake Heggie, and John Duffy. He received a Distinguished Young Alumni Award from Winona State University in 2016.

Awards and activities

Runestad has received awards for his compositions from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Composers Forum, the Peabody Conservatory, New Music USA, the Otto Bremmer Foundation, VocalEssence, the Virginia Arts Festival, the National Association for Music Education, the Association for Lutheran Church Musicians, and the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, and has received commissions for his musical works from the Washington National Opera, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Spire Chamber Ensemble, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, and Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare. He was also chosen as a Composer in residence for the 2015-2016 season of Choral Arts. In 2016, he was a recipient of the Morton Gould Young Composer Award from the ASCAP Foundation in recognition of his composition Dreams of the Fallen. In May 2017, he was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Composers (funded by the McKnight Foundation). and more recently was awarded the 2019 Raymond W. Brock Commission of the American Choral Directors Association, in this case for the composition "A Silence Haunts Me."

Runestad's compositions have received notices in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and other newspapers. The Chicago Tribune has referred to him as "one of the best of the younger American composers."

His music has been published by Boosey & Hawkes and JR Music.

The first recording devoted solely to the music of Jake Runestad, The Hope of Loving: Choral Music of Jake Runestad, was released by Delos Productions in 2019. The recording features fourteen compositions performed by the choral ensemble Conspirare of Austin, Texas, conducted by Craig Hella Johnson. Later that year, it was nominated for a GRAMMY in Best Choral Performance.

Dreams of the Fallen

On Veterans Day, 11 November 2013, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans, and pianist Jeffrey Biegel, under the direction of James Paul, presented Runestad's Dreams of the Fallen, a work for piano, orchestra, and chorus at the National World War II Museum. The work features the poetry of Iraq War veteran Brian Turner and explores a soldier's emotional response to the experience of war.

Dreams of the Fallen was commissioned by a consortium including the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey, and the Virginia Arts Festival. It received its New York City premiere with the West Point Glee Club and the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony at Carnegie Hall on 19 November 2016, conducted by David Bernard. It received its Chicago premiere with the Chicago Composers Orchestra and the Wicker Park Choral Singers on 5 May 2018.

An audio recording of a 2015 performance of Dreams of the Fallen in St. Paul, Minnesota, was broadcast nationwide on 29 May 2017 (Memorial Day) through the National Public Radio network.

Discography

• "I Will Lift Mine Eyes" on Seraphic Fire. Seraphic Fire. Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor. ℗ 2013 Seraphic Fire Media.
• "Nada Te Turbe" on Sheer Grace, National Lutheran Choir. David Cherwien, conductor. ℗ 2013 The National Lutheran Choir.
• "Fear Not, Dear Friend" on Reincarnations. Seraphic Fire. Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor. ℗ 2014 Seraphic Fire Media.
• "I Will Lift Mine Eyes" on Look Up and See. Sounding Light. Tom Trenney, conductor. ℗ 2014.
• "Sleep, Little Baby, Sleep" on Candlelight Carols. Seraphic Fire. Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor. ℗ 2014 Seraphic Fire Media.
• "Let My Love Be Heard" on Carol of the Angels, Choral Arts Northwest. Robert Bode, conductor. ℗ 2016 Choral Arts Northwest.
• "Reflections" on The Road Home, Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Joshua Habermann, conductor. ℗ 2016 Chandos Records.
• "The Hope of Loving" on Light of the Midnight Sun, Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. James Bass, conductor. ℗ 2018 The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.
• "Let My Love Be Heard" on Enchanted Isle, VOCES8. ℗ 2019 Decca Records.
• "The Hope of Loving: Choral Works of Jake Runestad", ℗ 2019 Delos Productions.

Principal Compositions

Operas

• The Toll (2010), premiered at the Peabody Conservatory, Friedberg Hall, 4 May 2010.
• The Abbess and the Acolyte (2011), premiered at the Virginia Arts Festival, 12 June 2011.
• Daughters of the Bloody Duke (2014), premiered at the Washington National Opera on 21 November 2014; revived 7 February 2016, American Lyric Theater, New York City

Orchestral Works

• "As Rain to the Sea" (2010, soprano soloist with orchestra)
• "Mechanical Minds" (2011)

Choir and Orchestra

• "Dreams of the Fallen" (2013, solo piano, chorus, and orchestra)
• "Climb" (2017, chorus and orchestra), text by Todd Boss
• "Ave Verum" (2017, SATB and string orchestra), first performed 23 April 2017 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, Scott Tucker, conductor, text by Todd Boss
• "Into the Light" (2017, SATB chorus and orchestra), commissioned by Valparaiso University to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, first performed at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and the Castle Church in Wittenberg with the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra and Valparaiso University Chorale, Christopher Cock, conductor
• "Proud Music of the Storm" (2017, SATB chorus and orchestra), commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Chorus, Joshua Habermann, conductor

Choir and Instrumental Ensemble

• "Dereva Ni Mungu" (2013, SATB, percussion, piano)
• "We Can Mend the Sky" (2014, SATB and percussion)
• "The Hope of Loving" (2015, SATB, soprano, tenor, baritone, and string quartet), commissioned by Seraphic Fire
• "One Flock" (2016, SATB, soloists, piano, and percussion), commissioned by Schola Cantorum on Hudson, Deborah Simpkin King, conductor
• "The Secret of the Sea" (2018, SATB divisi, piano, percussion, & string quintet), commissioned by Craig Hella Johnson and KI Concerts

Choir and Piano

• "The King of Love" (2013, SATB and piano)
• "None Other Lamb" (2013, SATB and piano)
• "Peace Flows Into Me" (2013, SATB and piano)
• "The Peace of Wild Things" (2014, SATB and piano)
• "Good Night, My Love" (2015, SATB and piano), commissioned by Marietta College, text by Paul Lawrence Dunbar
• "Come to the Woods" (2015, SATB and piano), commissioned by Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare
• "Waves" (2015, SSAATTBB and piano), commissioned by Robert Istad and California State University, Fullerton, text by Todd Boss
• "Reflections" (2016, SATB and piano), commissioned by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale
• "Please Stay" (2016, SATB and piano)
• "Rise Up" (2016, SSAA and piano), commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association
• "American Triptych": I. Reflections; II. The Peace of Wild Things; III. Come to the Woods (2016, SATB and piano)
• "A Silence Haunts Me" (2018, SATB and piano), commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association and the Raymond C. Brock Foundation, text by Todd Boss

Unaccompanied Choir

• "Nyon Nyon" (2006, SATB)
• "I Will Lift Mine Eyes" (2006, SATB), performed before Pope Francis at the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, on 20 November 2016
• "Fear Not, Dear Friend" (2012, SATB or TTBB), commissioned by Seraphic Fire
• "Sleep, Little Baby, Sleep" (2012, SATB), commissioned by Seraphic Fire
• "Nada Te Turbe" (2012, SATB), commissioned by Seraphic Fire
• "Alleluia" (2013, SATB)
• "Spirited Light" (2014, SATB)
• "Why the Caged Bird Sings" (2014, SATB), commissioned by Craig Hella Johnson and the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble
• "Let My Love Be Heard" (2014, SATB), commissioned by Choral Arts
• "Ner Ner" (2014, SATB), commissioned by the College of Wooster’s Wooster Chorus
• "Gaelic Prayer" (2015, SATB)
• "And So I Go On" (2015, SSAATTBB), commissioned by Jonathan Talberg and Edith Copley in memory of German Aguilar, first performance by the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music Chamber Choir at California State University, Long Beach, text by Todd Boss
• "All the World’s A Stage" (2015, SATB), commissioned by the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, texts by William Shakespeare
• "Live the Questions" (2016, SATB), commissioned by Choral Arts Northwest
• "Give Me Hunger" (2018, SATB), commissioned by a consortium of university choirs

Jazz Ensemble

• "Home" (2008)

Wind Ensemble

• "Catalyst" (2007)
• "Let My Love Be Heard" (2018)
• "Rivers of Air" (2018), commissioned by a consortium of seventeen North American university wind ensembles

Voice and Chamber Ensemble

• "Under the Harvest Moon" (2009, soprano, cello, and piano)
• "The Soul, Like the Moon" (2011, soprano and Pierrot ensemble)