Combining the musical forces of solo piano, chorus and orchestra with powerful texts written by Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran and award-winning poet Brian Turner, Jake Runestad’s Dreams of the Fallen explores a soldier’s experience of war and its lasting impact. Turner’s poetry conjures the reality of war and the post-traumatic stress syndrome that haunts our fighting men and women long after returning home. Runestad’s music evokes what “the other side” could be: a community of people embracing—with compassion and understanding—those who have endured armed combat and a world with no conflict or war. Peter Boyer’s gorgeous and uplifting Dreaming a World, with texts from Langston Hughes, Native American prayers and Walt Whitman, plus references to Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Cesar Chavez and more, is a collection of American ideals focused on equality and the dream of all people living in harmony.