Hi friends - thanks so much for listening to Episode 6 of the Composer Happy Hour. Hopefully you have a drink in hand, and you are ready to relax and enjoy a great conversation. Also - a quick plug here: if you aren't already following us on social media, please take a second to check us out (IG: @whateverandeveramen / Twitter: @whateverchoir). Your follows mean a lot to us. I'd also like to ask that if you have Apple Music, consider finding the podcast there and giving us a 5-star rating. This helps us out a lot!
Our guest for this episode is Jake Runestad. If you are a choral music fan or participant, I imagine you already know some of Jake's music. He has been prominently featured on the program at just about every recent ACDA conference, and his music has been collected on albums by Conspirare and Kantorei. When I first met Jake in person, I knew we would get along well because we have several shared interests: we both enjoy a good old-fashioned, consider ourselves to be "foodies," and have a shared fondness for the music of Ben Folds. We discuss all of that and more in the episode. I hope that as you listen to each episode you find you are getting to know these composers more as people - understanding their influences, their personality, etc. - and that this might give you a greater appreciation and understanding of their music. Grab a drink and enjoy!
As always, if you like what you hear - buy us a beer! Your contributions will help to fund future projects by whateverandeveramen.
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Jake Runestad is an award-winning and frequently-performed composer of “highly imaginative” (Baltimore Sun) and “stirring and uplifting” (Miami Herald) musical works that have been featured in thousands of performances worldwide and earned a 2020 GRAMMY award nomination. Having collaborated with leading ensembles and organizations around the globe, Jake has a versatile and prolific career creating works for orchestra, wind band, chorus, chamber ensembles, and opera. His visceral music and charismatic personality have fostered a busy schedule of commissions, residencies, workshops, and speaking engagements, establishing him as “one of the best of the younger American composers” (Chicago Tribune).
Steeped in a belief that music has the power to initiate positive change, Jake creates musical works that are socially conscious and explore authentic human emotions and experiences. Conductors, performers, and audiences continue to praise his music for its ability to connect with the head and the heart. As a result, Jake was one of the youngest composers ever awarded the coveted Raymond W. Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in 2018 — the foremost commission available to composers of choral music in the USA. For this honor, Jake wrote the groundbreaking work “A Silence Haunts Me” which conducting legend Dale Warland hailed “a masterpiece.” Runestad also received a 2017 McKnight Fellowship, a 2016 Morton Gould Young Composer Award from the ASCAP Foundation for his extended work “Dreams of the Fallen,” and his works have received awards from the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, the Peabody Conservatory, New Music USA, the Otto Bremmer Foundation, VocalEssence, the Virginia Arts Festival, the National Association for Music Education, and the American Choral Directors Association. Jake’s “The Peace of Wild Things” won the Nathan Davis Prize for Composition in 2012, and he received a 2020 Outstanding Graduate Award from Johns Hopkins University.
Considered a “choral rockstar” by American Public Media, Jake is one of the most frequently performed and commissioned composers of choral music in the world having “…a particular knack for marrying powerful music to texts that speak to some of the most pressing and moving issues of our time” (Star Tribune). The first full album dedicated to Jake’s choral music, “The Hope of Loving,” was released in 2019 by Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare and subsequently received a GRAMMY award nomination. In his relatively short career, he has already worked with leading ensembles such as VOCES8, the Swedish Radio Symphony, Seraphic Fire, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, the Phoenix Chorale, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Pro Coro Canada, the Taipei Philharmonic Choir, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, and many more. Jake’s music is often featured at national and regional conferences of the American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA), Chorus America, Podium (Canada), and the Association of British Choral Directors. Reaching audiences around the world, his compositions have been heard in thousands of performances from Taiwan to Finland to Argentina to Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
“Dreams of the Fallen,” Jake’s groundbreaking work for solo piano, chorus, and orchestra, was commissioned by a group of five orchestras from around the U.S.A. After its premiere at the National World War II Museum in 2013, the work has gained national attention in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Symphony Magazine. Incorporating poetry by Brian Turner, award-winning poet and veteran of the War in Iraq, “Dreams of the Fallen” explores the impact war has on an individual especially after he or she returns from combat. Subsequent performances have been given by the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Philharmonic of Southern NJ, the Rockford Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, and VocalEssence and the Metropolitan Symphony; all featuring acclaimed pianist and Steinway recording artist Jeffrey Biegel.
A rising star in the national opera scene, Jake was recently commissioned by Washington National Opera for his third opera, “Daughters of the Bloody Duke” — a collaboration with award-winning librettist David Johnston. “Daughters of the Bloody Duke” had its premiere performance in November of 2014 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and was met with rave reviews from critics including Anne Midgette of the Washington Post. One of the few comedy operas written in recent years, this new work was “as much fun for the singers as it was for the audience” (Washington Post).
In-demand as a guest conductor, Jake Runestad has worked with student, community, and professional ensembles around the world. Upcoming engagements include New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, the Sydney Opera House, as well as residencies with ensembles and institutions across six continents.
Jake Runestad holds a Master’s degree in composition from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, in addition to formative mentoring from acclaimed composer Libby Larsen. Originally from Rockford, IL, Jake is currently based in Minneapolis, MN. For more information and to purchase scores, please visit JakeRunestad.com
All Recordings Used by Permission of the Composer:
"The Peace of Wild Things" (2013)
Conspirare
"Sing, Wearing the Sky" (2014)
Kantorei
"And So I Go On" (2015)
Conspirare
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