For more than a century, Doane choral groups have inspired audiences all over the world with performances of sacred and secular music. During annual national tours, the choir has presented concerts all over the United States, from Minneapolis to Dallas, Los Angeles to New York City, and at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The choir regularly tours internationally, and has sung concerts in 14countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, and Switzerland. On the choir’s 2018 South Africa tour, they performed for and with the world-renowned Soweto Gospel Choir and presented concerts in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The choir has also presented concerts at many of the most prestigious musical cathedrals in Europe, including St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice and the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany.
The Doane Choir regularly performs choral-orchestral works with area orchestras, including Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (twice), Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Jake Runestad’s Dreams of the Falleni and A Silence Haunts Me, and Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem. The Doane Choir has regularly been featured at Nebraska state music convention, and has sung at a regional convention of the American Choral Directors Association. The choir has worked with such noted guest conductors and artists as Simon Carrington, Eph Ely, William Hatcher, Joseph Jennings, Craig Hella Johnson, Kyle Ketelsen, Weston Noble, Alice Parker, Doreen Rao, Jake Runestad, Constantina Tsolaninou, Eric Whitacre, and both Sir David Willcocks and his son, Jonathan Willcocks.
Recordings of the choirs are sold at most Doane Choir concerts. Videos of several of Doane’s choral groups are available for viewing on YouTube; search “Doane Choir,” “Doane Doublewide,” or “Doane Jazz Unlimited.” Doane offers four choral organizations; every interested student has an opportunity to participate. In addition to the Doane Choir, other choral ensembles include Collegiate Chorale, Doublewide, and Jazz Unlimited. You can follow the Doane choirs and music department on both Instagram (@doanevocalmusic) and Facebook (Doane University Music Department).
Dr. Kurt R1mestad
It has been Dr. Kurt Runestad’s privilege to teach at Doane University since the fall of 2004. He teaches three of Deane’s four choral ensembles, including the acclaimed Doane Choir, which under his direction has performed throughout the United States as well as in 13 countries on four continents. He also serves Doane University as the music department chair. A native of Wayne, Nebraska, Runestad graduated from St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education, taught 10 years in the public schools of Iowa and Minnesota, and earned two graduate degrees in choral conducting from the University of Iowa. He is a frequent clinician, arranger, and adjudicator for choirs throughout the Midwest, and several of his arranged transcriptions of pieces by the Soweto Gospel Choir are published by www.musicspoke.com. Runestad has twice received the “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” award from Doane’s Student Congress, and has also been awarded Doane’s Ardis Butler James faculty fellowship. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife Carly Woythaler-Runestad, and they have two children, daughter Avery (16) and son Owen (13). Outside of music ond parenting, Runestad also enjoys reading, (mostly) organic gardening, camping, and traveling.
