Kevin Puts

Kevin Matthew Puts /pʊts/ (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for his opera The Hours and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, Silent Night, and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his concerto Contact.

Early life and education

Puts was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Alma, Michigan. He studied composition and piano at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University, earning the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Eastman School of Music. Among his teachers were Samuel Adler, Jacob Druckman, David Lang, Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, and, in piano, Nelita True. He also studied at the Tanglewood Music Festival with William Bolcom and Bernard Rands.

Career

He is composer-in-residence at the Fort Worth Symphony and has received a commission from the Aspen Music Festival. His Cello Concerto was premiered by Yo-Yo Ma. Puts' works have been performed by the St. Louis Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Utah Symphony (with Evelyn Glennie as percussion soloist), the Miró Quartet, and Concertante. He is a frequent composer in residence at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, which commissioned his fourth symphony and his flute concerto.

His alma mater commented:

For several years, Kevin Puts received reviews describing him as a "promising composer" and "a young composer to watch". But with a flurry of recent performances and prestigious commissions, Puts can now be described as one of America's most important composers, period.

Puts was Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Texas at Austin from 1997 to 2005 and now teaches composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and is a Distinguished Visiting Faculty member at The Juilliard School. His notable students include Jake Runestad and Viet Cuong.

The opera Silent Night, with score by Puts and libretto by Mark Campbell, was published by Aperto Press in 2011 and premiered by the Minnesota Opera on November 12. Puts won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2012; the citation called the piece "a stirring opera that recounts the true story of a spontaneous ceasefire [the 1914 Christmas truce] among Scottish, French and Germans during World War I, displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the heart."

Puts's opera The Hours, with libretto by Greg Pierce, was first performed in concert form in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center in March 2022, and then fully staged in November 2022 at the New York Metropolitan Opera. His triple concerto Contact won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Awards

Selected works

Orchestra

Wind ensemble

SATB choir

Concertos

Song cycle

Opera

References

  1. ↑ Ann McCutchan, "In the moment" Archived 2013-12-15 at the Wayback Machine, Symphony (magazine), March–April 2010, accessed 19 July 2021
  2. 1 2 3 "The 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Music". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-20. With short biography and material on the opera including audio-video excerpt.
  3. ↑ Ann McCutchan, "In the moment" Archived 2013-12-15 at the Wayback Machine, Symphony (magazine), March–April 2010, accessed 30 January 2015
  4. ↑ "Composer Kevin Puts - Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music". Cabrillomusic.org. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
  5. ↑ Archived July 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Archived August 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ "Peabody Institute Faculty/Kevin Puts". Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Kevin Matthew Puts - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". Gf.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
  9. ↑ Archived August 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "New Music News Wire". NewMusicBox. 2008-04-07. Archived from the original on 2008-12-26. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
  11. ↑ Bravo: Program Notes for Concert by Time For Three and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (2024)