Rockford native Jake Runestad earns second Grammy nomination

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A composer and conductor who hails from Rockford has earned his second Grammy nomination, this time for his latest album.

Jake Runestad, a 2004 Guilford High School graduate who now lives in Minneapolis, is one of five nominees in the Best Choral Performance Category for the 67th Grammy Awards. The list of nominees was released Friday, and the winners will be announced during the awards show airing Sunday, Feb. 2.

Runestad, 38, was nominated for “A Dream So Bright: Choral Music of Jake Runestad,” which was released in August.

“It is a great honor to receive this nomination and to be recognized by the Recording Academy for our hard work,” Runestad said in a news release. “I’m so proud of this album and am grateful to everyone who made it possible.”

The album features two of Runestad’s compositions: His 2022 Emmy-winning choral symphony “Earth Symphony,” which explores environmental loss through the voice of Mother Earth, and “Dreams of the Fallen,” which pairs solo piano, choir and orchestra with poems from Iraq War veteran Brian Turner to explore the soldier’s emotional response to war.

It was recorded by Arizona-based True Concord Voices & Orchestra with pianist Jeffrey Biegel and conductor Eric Holtan.

“We’re thrilled with this nomination,” Holtan said. “Jake is one of America’s rising stars as a composer and he wrote two incredible pieces of music on two critically important topics.”

Classical music review outlet Gramophone has called the album “a forceful social statement” with “music of urgent and lyrical intensity.” Pizzacato said the album “addresses the pain of the war experience in stirring, emotional music that ranges from the most intense to the most serene.”

Runestad began composing while as senior at Guilford. His first Grammy nomination came in 2020 for “The Hope of Loving: Choral Music of Jake Runestad.” It was recorded by Conspirare and conductor Craig Hella Johnson.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas