Mickelle Bisbee– Staff Writer
From the beautifully slow and somber sound of Let My Love Be Heard, the haunting voices and frightening piano of A Silence Haunts Me and the creative take of Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and Requiem to compose Ave Verum, Jake Runestad is bringing what the Baltimore Sun calls his “highly imaginative” sound to UW.
“When we have the opportunity to make a connection with one of the greatest composers of our time, we just jump at the chance,” said Nicole Lamartine, UW director of choral activities.
Lamartine said she met with Runestad last spring when she travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over lunch, the two discussed what the opportunity would look like if Runestad would come to Wyoming. As he had never been to this state, Lamartine said he was very willing and excited to come.
During his residency, Runestad will be presenting many activities for choir students and the public, but the biggest events he will be hosting is the Big Sing and the All-Student Convocation for Music Entrepreneurship.
The Big Sing is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday in the Buchanan Center for Performing Arts (BCPA) Concert Hall. This rehearsal is open for the public, to join together and learn one of Runestad’s newest compositions “Your Soul is Song.” Afterwards there will be a question and answer session about the piece.
“What I love about this experience is that people don’t have to have singing experience,” Lamartine said. “They can just come and join us.”
Music will be handed out at the door and people can begin learning the piece from scratch. Lamartine said there is no pressure of performance or preparation, that it is all about singing and learning the piece and making beautiful music together.
The All-Student Convocation: Music Entrepreneurship will be at 1:10 p.m. today in BCPA room 2003. In this, Runestad will talk about music entrepreneurship, marketing as a musician and one’s own music, self-publishing and how to license music.
As a prestigious and prominent composer who has worked with many Grammy award winning ensembles, such as Conspirare and VOCES8, Lamartine said she was very excited to learn that Runestad wanted to come to UW.
“I think Jake represents the passion of young composers who are making great music these days,” Lamartine said. “He is down to earth, he’s a phenomenal human being and I think our students will really relate to him because he’s so approachable and so knowledgeable.”
Along with the Big Sing and Convocation, Runestad will be presenting two forums: one for composing and the other for conducting.
In the composer forum from 1 to 2 p.m. Friday in BCPA room 2003, Runestad is targeting for budding composers, to teach them more specifically about the structure of choral composition.
For those who want to be music educators or music conductors, Runestad will be hosting a conducting forum from 4 to 5 p.m. today in BCPA Conference Room where students can “find out how to make the music come alive off the page” (Lamartine) and learn from a composer.
Runestad will be here today and tomorrow in BCPA sharing his expertise and rehearsing music with not only choir students, but with the people of the public.
