With text by Walt Whitman, Proud Music of the Storm (2017) was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Chorus in celebration of their 40th Anniversary season. It had its world premiere on October 8, 2017 conducted by Joshua Habermann, and in June 2018 was premiered in an orchestral version with instrumentation matching that of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. More than just shared instrumentation connects Bernstein’s 1965 choral work with Runestad’s new one: both are songs of praise, and praise of music.
