Jeremiah Gunter is nothing short of an academic weapon. With a perfect 4.0 GPA and an insane 16 AP classes, his academic achievements don’t end there. Gunter is also a National Merit Semifinalist, winner of the Trig State Math Competition, runs the Math Club and Science Bowl Club, placed 5th in the Snow College Math Competition and Regional MathCounts competition, and works at a local law firm in his spare time.
Despite that already impressive resume, academics aren’t Gunter’s only focus. Afterall, this is Timpview’s Most Musical. He is a musical weapon as well as an academic one.
His musical endeavors range from playing trumpet and marimba in the Timpview Marching Band and being a member of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra to being an All-State qualifier and performing with BYU music programs.
Recently, Gunter was a winner of the Concerto/Aria competition, winning not one but two Concertos, one on bassoon and one on cello. He was also named Timpview’s 2025 Instrumental Performance Sterling Scholar.
How did he get here though? How did he become the incredible musician we know today?
He didn’t come from a particularly musical family. “My mom was a cheerleader in high school, and my dad loved powerlifting and sports,” Gunter explains. “Neither ever got into music, so I do not think they ever intended to have me do so much music.”
Turns out, the simple act of buying a piano for the family would be the catalyst for Gunter’s musical journey. He instantly loved the piano, and it inspired him to learn more and more instruments. His inspiration rubbed off on his mom and siblings as well, and now you’d never know they weren’t musical from the start.
He began cello in 5th grade and bassoon in 7th. “Looking back,” he says. “I don’t really know the exact moment I started to focus on cello and bassoon, but it was most likely at the start of high school and out of opportunity and necessity.” He now pulls double duty, playing cello and bassoon in the Chamber Orchestra, also playing bassoon in the Wind Symphony.
This Wednesday, October 8th, Gunter will be performing the first of his two concertos, “Cello Concerto in D minor” by Eduard Lalo. As a percussionist for the Chamber Orchestra I can tell you it’s a challenging, dramatic, and vibrant Concerto and shows off his skills wonderfully. He will be performing his bassoon Concerto, “Bassoon Concerto in F Major” by Carl Maria von Weber at one of the future orchestra concerts this year, but it is an absolutely beautiful and expressive piece as well. He would like all young musicians to know “just to keep on trying things. [He] had tried 3 or 4 independent concerto competitions, not making any of them, before winning this school one.”
Gunter has had a very impressive high school career, but his aspirations don’t end there. He plans to go on an LDS mission and then go to BYU to double major in some sort of music and math. He then plans to go to graduate school, get a PhD, then teach at a university.
When asked what his biggest inspirations was he said “I think that my brother was one of the biggest inspirations in life in general, as he would start, and often be the guinea pig, do all these cool difficult things, and would try to emulate him.” Gunter says. With his achievements, work ethic, and dedication for his craft, Jeremiah Gunter certainly embodies his life philosophy of “Go Big or Go Home”, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to be “going home” anytime soon.
