John Rommereim

John Rommereim is a musician who has pursued a varied career as a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and professor. His vocal music is distinguished by the way in which it uncovers the emotional core of each chosen text. This successful fusion of poetry and music might be exemplified best in the title song for this album, Into the Still Hollow, which has been praised by the New York Times for its “richly expressive” character. This album offers a selection of his vocal and chamber music performed by an array of celebrated artists. 

He has also composed choral music that has been performed by distinguished ensembles across the United States. In the theatrical realm, he has collaborated as a composer with director Craig Quintero to create Rheingold (2014), and The First Time I Walked on the Moon (2018), with multiple performances in Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States, and a short film, The Weight of Things (2022), which was screened by the Sydney Opera House. 

His works written in collaboration with flutist Claudia Anderson have been performed at several National Flute Association conventions, and internationally by the ZAWA flute duet. As a conductor, he has led choirs on concert tours throughout the United States, and in Canada, Estonia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey, and he has recorded Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Missa Omnium Sanctorum, in collaboration with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil, and Jonathan Dove’s The Passing of the Year. 

As a harpsichordist, his playing can be heard on a Centaur CD of Joseph Bodin de Boismortier’s Op. 90 sonatas for flute and obligato harpsichord. His translation of Pavel Chesnokov’s seminal treatise, The Choir and How to Direct It is published by Musica Russica. 

Rommereim is Blanche Johnson Professor of Music at Grinnell College, where he conducts the Grinnell Singers and the Grinnell Oratorio Society, and teaches composition.