Jake Runestad

Jake Runestad (born 20 May 1986) is an 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 Todd Boss.

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.

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.

He was also selected as a Composer in residence for the 2015–16 season of Choral Arts.

He received a Distinguished Young Alumni Award from Winona State University in 2016.

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.

He 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.

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.

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.

In May 2017, he was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Composers (funded by the McKnight Foundation).

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.

Listings and information about Jake Runestad's compositions are found on the composer's website.

Operas

Orchestral Works

Choir and Orchestra

Choir and Instrumental Ensemble

Choir and Piano

Unaccompanied Choir

Jazz Ensemble

Wind Ensemble

Voice and Chamber Ensemble

His "Dreams of the Fallen" for chorus, orchestra and solo piano was premiered by the Chicago Composers Orchestra in 2018 on the 100th anniversary of the armistice of World War I.

and 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, a contribution to the Huffington Post blog, and other newspapers.

Runestad is a member of the Program Council for New Music USA.

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, the recording was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.

In 2020, he was a recipient of an Outstanding Recent Graduate Award from these institutions.

His teachers at the Peabody Conservatory included Kevin Puts.

He studied with the composer Libby Larsen and worked with Bernard Rands, David Lang, Tania León, John Musto, Christopher Rouse, Jake Heggie, and John Duffy.

In 2020, Naxos Records released the album Sing, Wearing the Sky, a collection of 10 choral compositions by Runestad performed by the Kantorei choir of Denver conducted by Joel Rinsema.

Runestad's Earth Symphony (2022) has been awarded an Emmy in the category musical composition.