John Rommereim is a musician who has pursued a varied career as a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and professor. He has written works for choir, solo voice, orchestra, string quartet, saxophone quartet, flute ensemble, guitar, organ, piano, and electronic media, as well as a chamber opera, and music for theater and film. The New York Times praised the “richly expressive” character of his work for voice and piano, “Into the Still Hollow.”
His choral music has been performed by distinguished ensembles across the USA, as well as in China and Europe. He has collaborated with theater director Craig Quintero to create “Rheingold” (an original chamber opera commissioned in 2014 by the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture as part of a celebration of Wagner’s Ring Cycle) and “The First Time I Walked on the Moon” (2018), which was performed numerous times in Taiwan and South Korea. He also composed music for the short film, The Weight of Things (2022), which was screened by the Sydney Opera House. His works written for flutist Claudia Anderson have been performed at several National Flute Association conventions, and internationally by the ZAWA flute duo. His choral work “Beauty by Beauty” will appear in 2025 on a Cantori New York, album, conducted by Mark Shapiro, and released on the Parma label. His organ music has been broadcast on the nationally syndicated Pipe Dreams radio program. His music is published by Walton Music, Oxford University Press, earthsongs, Alry Publications, MusicScore, and Roger Dean Publishing.
As a conductor, he has led choirs on concert tours throughout the USA, and in Canada, Estonia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey, and he has recorded CDs of Rachmaninov’s “All-Night Vigil,” Jonathan Dove’s “The Passing of the Year,” and Jan Dismas Zelenka’s “Missa Omnium Sanctorum” (in collaboration with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra). 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.
His piece, “Beauty by Beauty” is included in the newly released album on the Navona label, Found Again, by Cantori New York, Mark Shapiro, conductor. Also, Into the Still Hollow, his album of songs and chamber music, with baritone Thomas Meglioranza and pianist Reiko Uchida, has also recently been released on the Navona label. The title song was praised by the New York Times at its premiere at Symphony Space. The album also includes music for solo guitar played by David William Ross, a work for soprano and string quartet performed by Charlotte Mundy with the Siruis Quartet, and music for organ and oboe as well as organ and saxophone.
Rommereim is Blanche Johnson Professor of Music at Grinnell College, where he conducts the Grinnell Singers and the Grinnell Oratorio Society, and teaches composition.
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