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Jacob Beranek (b. 1998) is an American composer and educator. Hailed as “refreshingly upbeat and infectiously melodic” (Fanfare), his compositions are infused with his love of melody and craft, his Czech and German heritage, and above all, his deep devotion to the tradition and teachings of the Catholic Church. A firm believer in the power of Beauty to transform hearts and minds, Beranek views each of his compositions as an opportunity to mysteriously reveal goodness, hope, and truth, and to reignite wonder and nostalgia for God in the souls of his audience.
Spanning a wide range of instrumental and vocal genres, Beranek’s music has been performed on three continents by orchestras such as the Juilliard Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Peninsula Music Festival, and Wisconsin Philharmonic; vocal ensembles including the Compline Choir of Seattle, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Gesualdo Six, and Musica Sacra; chamber groups such as the ALIAS Ensemble, Chelsea Music Festival, Dolce Suono Ensemble, Lee Trio, Milwaukee Musaik, Midsummer’s Music, and Music Northwest; and soloists Leslie Ashworth, Stephanie Bell, Giuseppe Fu, Reed Gnepper, Marco Jimenez, Kate Raquel Morton, Benjamin Truncale, and Mimi Stillman, among others. Beranek has also collaborated frequently with dance, including choreographers Julia Antinozzi (New York Choreographic Institute), Sidra Bell (Juilliard New Dances), and Kannen Glanz (ChoreoComp at Juilliard). In 2023, Mikel Toms and the Brno Philharmonic (Brno, Czechia) recorded his Pilgrimatic Overture as part of ABLAZE Records’ ninth “Orchestral Masters” album. A recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Beranek’s work has garnered recognition in competitions such as the American Prize for Composition, the National Federation of Music Clubs Beyer Awards, and The Gesualdo Six Composition Competition, in which he received first place for ages 21-and-under worldwide. He was the first composer at Juilliard to have music featured in the Juilliard New Dances series while still a student and was one of the winners of Juilliard’s 2022–23 Orchestra Composition Competition, with a premiere in Alice Tully Hall in March 2023. At age eighteen, Beranek was honored to be named the inaugural Composer-in-Residence of the Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. During his four-year tenure, he composed four substantial chamber works and delivered a series of lectures on music history. He has also been featured as Composer-in-Residence and Guest Composition Teacher at the Composer’s Institute, as well as a guest speaker at Morningside University, the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, and the Juilliard Station’s preconcert talk series. Beranek received his Bachelor of Music from Vanderbilt University, his Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts at Juilliard with a dissertation on Dvořák’s Mass in D major. His teachers have included John Corigliano, Ronald Foster, Philip Lasser, Michael Alec Rose, and Carl Smith. In addition to his compositional and scholarly work, he is the conductor of the Higher Word Orchestra, a Catholic ensemble based in New York City. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Amanda, a Baroque and modern harpist, and their newborn son Clement. |
