Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...

, ''

Silent Night "Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared ...

''.

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 The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, earning the

Doctor of Musical Arts The Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) is a doctoral academic degree in music. The DMA combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization (usually music performance, music composition, or conducting) with graduate-level academic study ...

degree from

. 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 The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, ch ...

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 The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) is a classical music festival held annually in Aspen, Colorado. It is noted both for its concert programming and the musical training it offers to mostly young-adult music students. Founded in 1949, th ...

. His Cello Concerto was premiered by

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

. Puts's 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 reports: :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 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

from 1997 to 2005 and now teaches composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. His notable students include

Jake Runestad Jake Runestad (born 20 May 1986) is an American composer and conductor of classical music based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has composed music for a wide variety of musical genres and ensembles, but has achieved greatest acclaim for his wor ...

and Viet Cuong. The opera ''

'', with score by Puts and libretto by Mark Campbell, was published by Aperto Press in 2011 and premiered by the

Minnesota Opera Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded as the Center Opera Company in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as '' Where the Wild Things Are'' by Oliv ...

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 he 1914 Christmas truce">Christmas_truce.html" ;"title="he 1914 Christmas truce">he 1914 Christmas truceamong Scottish, French and Germans during World War I, displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the heart."

Awards

* American Academy of Arts and Letters composition prize * 2001 Guggenheim Fellow * 1996-1998 Young Concert Artists Composer-in-Residence
* 2002 Rome Prize of the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects ...

. * 2008 Opera Fund Awards, The Minnesota Opera: ''

'' * 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Silent Night'' (libretto by Mark Campbell)"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.

Selected works

Orchestra

*''Network'' (1997), commissioned and premiered by the California Symphony Orchestra, Barry Jekowsky, conductor *Symphony No. 1 (1999), commissioned and premiered by the California Symphony Orchestra, Barry Jekowsky, conductor *''Falling Dream'' (2001), commissioned and premiered by the American Composers Orchestra/BMI Foundation, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor *''John Brown's Body'' for Narrator and Orchestra (2001), commissioned and premiered by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Jack Everly, conductor *''Inspiring Beethoven'' (2001), commissioned and premiered by the Phoenix Symphony, Michael Hermann, conductor *''Millennium Canons'' (2001), commissioned and premiered by the Boston Pops Orchestra and Hanson Institute for American Music, Keith Lockhart, conductor *Symphony No. 2, ''Island of Innocence'' (2002), commissioned by the Barlow Foundation, premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony/Paavo Jaarvi conductor and Utah Symphony/Keith Lockhart conductor *''...this noble company'' (2003), commissioned and premiered by the Atlanta Symphony, Jere Flint, conductor *''River's Rush'' (2004), commissioned and premiered by the Saint Louis Symphony in celebration of the orchestra's 125th anniversary, Leonard Slatkin, conductor *Symphony No. 3, ''Vespertine'' (2004), commissioned by Kathryn Gould and Meet the Composer through Magnum Opus, premiered by the Marin Symphony, Alasdair Neale, conductor *Symphony No. 4, ''from Mission San Juan'' (2007), commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, premiered by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Marin Alsop, conductor *''Two Mountain Scenes'' (2007), commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Bramwell Tovey, conductor *''Hymn to the Sun'' (2008), commissioned and premiered by the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Alasdair Neale, conductor *''The City'' (2016), commissioned and premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Cabrillo Festival, Marin Alsop, conductor *''Silent Night Elegy'' (cut from his opera ''

'') (2018), commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Symphony, co-commissioned by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Cristian Măcelaru, conductor *''Virelai (after Guillaume de Machaut)'' (2019), commissioned and premiered by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Stéphane Denève, conductor

Wind Ensemble

*''Chorus of Light'' (2003), commissioned and premiered by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, Jerry Junkin, conductor *''Millennium Canons (band version arr. Mark Spede)'' (2003), commissioned and premiered by The University of Texas Wind Ensemble, Jerry Junkin, conductor

SATB Choir

*''To Touch the Sky'' (2012), SSAATTBB, commissioned by the Thelma Hunter Fund of the American Composers Forum and Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, conductor *''If I Were A Swan'' (2012), SSAATTBB, commissioned by the Thelma Hunter Fund of the American Composers Forum and Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, conductor

Concertos

*Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra (1997), commissioned by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the Kobe Ensemble of Japan, Makoto Nakura, marimba *Concerto for Oboe and Strings No. 1 (1997), commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, Rudolph Vrbsky, oboe *Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (2006), commissioned by Orange County's Pacific Symphony and the Utah Symphony *''Sinfonia Concertante'' (2006), commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra *Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2006), commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Sid R. Bass for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Michael Shih, violin; Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor *''Vision'' (Concerto for Cello and Orchestra) (2006), commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival in honor of David Zinman's 70th birthday, Yo-Yo Ma, cello; David Zinman, conductor *''Nā Pali Coast'' (Concerto for Horn and Orchestra) (2008), commissioned by the Mobile Symphony, Jeff Leenhouts, horn; Scott Speck, conductor *''Night'' (Concerto for Piano and Orchestra) (2008), commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane, piano and conductor *Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (2009), commissioned by Kathryn Gould through Meet the Composer, premiered by Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Bil Jackson, clarinet; Jeffrey Kahane, conductor *Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (2013), commissioned by Bette and Joe Hirsch, premiered by the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra, Adam Walker, flute; Carolyn Kuan, conductor *''Moonlight'' (Concerto for Oboe and Strings No. 2) (2016), commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Peter Cooper, oboe; Brett Mitchell, conductor

Song cycle

*''The Brightness of Light'' (2019)

Opera

*''

'' (2011) *''The Manchurian Candidate'' (2015) *''Elizabeth Cree'' (2017) *'' The Hours'' (2022)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Puts, Kevin 1972 births American classical composers American male classical composers American opera composers Male opera composers Pulitzer Prize for Music winners Texas classical music Musicians from St. Louis Eastman School of Music alumni Yale University alumni Peabody Institute faculty 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers Living people Pupils of Jacob Druckman 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from Missouri 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians