By Todd Melby and Anika Besst
Jake Runestad doesn’t shy away from challenging topics.
In “Dreams of the Fallen,” the Minneapolis-based composer worked with a poet and war veteran to create a piece of music about post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s one of two songs he composed on the Grammy-nominated album A Dream So Bright: Choral Music of Jake Runestad.
Runestad learned of the Grammy nomination on Friday.
“I’m really, really excited,” he says.
Runestad, who also snared a Grammy nomination in 2020, worked with Arizona-based choir True Concord Voices & Orchestra on the album, which was nominated in the “best choral performance” category.
“There’s so much power you can pack into that use of words when pairing it with music,” he said. “There is really no other art form like it.”
For “Dreams of the Fallen,” Runestad worked with U.S. Army veteran Brian Turner, who was a writer and poet before serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The composition is for choir, orchestra and solo piano.
“It’s like a piano concerto, where the pianist is out front, in front of the orchestra,” he said. “And then there is a choir that sings Brian’s words, and the orchestra creates kind of a sonic landscape as we go through this journey of what it’s like to go through the PTSD experience.”
The other piece Runestad composed on the album is “Earth Symphony,” which is for choir and orchestra with libretto by Todd Boss, a poet formerly based in Minneapolis, who now lives in Austin, Texas. The piece examines the climate crisis from the perspective of Mother Earth as she tells the history of an extinct humankind.
“Mother Earth is recounting our history from our evolution into our lust for power and greed and essentially, she sings about our demise, and her own recovery,” Runestad said.
Runestad’s previous Grammy nomination was for the album The Hope of Loving, recorded by Conspirare.
Only recordings commercially released in the U.S. between Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024 were eligible for nominations. The final round of Grammy voting, which determines its winners, will take place Dec. 12 through Jan. 3.
The 2025 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 2 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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