Press Feature Components
Kevin Puts’s new opera had its premiere in a Philadelphia Orchestra concert presentation before coming to New York this fall.
Sunflower includes recent work The Miro Quartet plays two-year-old ‘Credo’ at Thursday night’s concert
"Scott Cantrell, former classical music critic for The Kansas City Star who is now working for The Dallas Morning News, recently reviewed the Miro Quartet playing “Credo,” writing: “It’s not often that a brand-new piece of music — 19 minutes’ worth, no less — hits you right in the solar plexus. But that’s how it was Monday evening with Kevin Puts’ two-year-old string quartet ‘Credo.’ After a riveting performance by the Miro Quartet, at Caruth Auditorium, patrons of the Dallas Chamber Music series were wide-eyed at the aural and emotional impact of the piece.”"
Minnesota Opera took a chance on composer Kevin Puts, whose first opera, Silent Night, has its world premiere in St. Paul this month. MICHAEL SLADE reports.
"New York-based composer and Peabody Institute faculty member Kevin Puts has won the Pulitizer Prize for music with Silent Night, his first opera. The work received its world premiere in November in at Minnesota Opera in St. Paul. Pulitzer officials described Silent Night as "a stirring opera that recounts the true story of a spontaneous cease-fire among Scottish, French and Germans during World War I, displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the heart.""
"Mr. Puts’s NYFOS Next program on Tuesday, “Kevin Puts & Friends,” drew a nearly full house to the center’s intimate Jerome Robbins Theater. In greeting the audience Mr. Puts said that he had grabbed this chance to fill a gap in his knowledge and highlight the fine work of colleagues."
BRIAN KELLOW chats with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, who this month curates a program of song for New York Festival of Song's "NYFOS Next" series.
"Puts’ musical voice, which has grown impressively since his “River’s Rush” for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s 2004 opening night, is appropriate for each scene, ranging from the tender and lovely to the atonal for battle scenes. Puts deserved the 2012 Pulitzer Prize he won for the score."
Kevin Puts is still in search of the perfect composition. His newest work pairs the Miró Quartet and the SPCO.
"Even before the announcement on Wednesday that Kevin Puts would be the new director of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Composer Institute, the 42-year-old composer had made an impact on musical life in the Twin Cities... Puts writes music of singular beauty and depth. He often is inspired by a visual image..."
"Kevin Puts won a Pulitzer for his first work for Minnesota Opera. Word on the street is “The Manchurian Candidate” is even better."
Interview with Brian Kellow (followkellow.com).
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (Austin Opera) The gamble of mounting a new opera based on a tale of Cold War paranoia paid off richly when this thriller proved gripping from the first note. Every element, every moment worked – Kevin Puts' moody score; Richard Buckley's intense conducting; Alison Moritz's taut staging; Greg Emetaz's projections; all the performers – heightening the tension 'til my shoulders were hunched around my ears.
"What happens when you juxtapose Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, an orchestral masterpiece whose sublime grandeur seems impossible to rival, with contemporary composer Kevin Puts's much gentler (albeit not that gentle) Symphony No. 2"
Opera Philadelphia's 2017-18 Season, Kicking Off Inaugural O17 Festival, to Feature Three World Premieres, Including Kevin Puts's Elizabeth Cree
The company will also present the world premiere of a chamber opera based on Peter Ackroyd’s The Trial of Elizabeth Cree, which will feature the creative team behind the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night: Composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell’s new opera, Elizabeth Cree, will be set in London in the 1880s as the titular heroine is put on trial for the poisoning her husband. Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack will sing the title role, while baritone Troy Cook will sing Elizabeth’s husband John; tenor Joseph Gaines will sing the music hall star Dan Leno. David Schweizer will direct the production, and Opera Philadelphia’s music director Corrado Rovaris will conduct.
Interview with Stay Thirsty magazine, talking about Elizabeth Cree, Silent Night and more
Interview with composer Kevin Puts and mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack on the eve of the opening of the new opera Elizabeth Cree, for Opera Philadelphia.
1. Elizabeth Cree – Opera Philadelphia & Chicago Opera Theater Opera Philadelphia’s world premiere is one of the biggest events of the fall season as it reunites Kevins Puts and Mark Campbell after successful collaborations in “Silent Night” and “The Manchurian Candidate.” The new chamber opera, headlined by the rising star Daniela Mack, is based on Peter Ackroyd’s novel, “The Trial of Elizabeth Cree” and is set in London in the 1880s. The opera interweaves several narratives to create a gripping and exhilarating new work. Opening the Opera Philadelphia 2017 festival on Sept. 14 and then appearing at the Chicago Opera Theater, this is a must see.
"Moments of lyricism impelled from within fill the five-part cycle... The composer's subtlety in broadening the texture, sometimes thinning it out to encompass paradoxically both breathlessness and deep breathing, is displayed again and again."
"Harmony is everything to me, it is the primary vehicle by which I feel I can tell a story."
"Chicago Opera Theater continues its 2017/18 season with a world premiere, Elizabeth Cree, an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd’s murder-filled novel, The Trial of Elizabeth Cree. The opera is the latest from the team of composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, who together created the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night."
"It is always a challenge, especially because I always expect more of myself from one project than from the one before. But every composer develops a way of working which feels right and great to them, and I like mine."
"Silent Night – Glimmerglass Festival: Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s award-winning masterpiece makes its Glimmerglass debut in a new production by Tomer Zvulun."
"Kevin Puts’s 'Credo' for string quartet, through-composed with clearly defined sections, but no breaks, brought a shockingly fresh, improvisatory repose in this arrangement for strings….Puts’s contemporary idiom allowed for both the Miró Quartet and A Far Cry to shine at their best, both in execution and expressivity."
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"[Elizabeth Cree] was engaging as a breathtakingly tabloid piece, and thought-provoking too, inviting a reflection upon the connections between the first era obsessed with media sensationalism and our own, even more saturated in its addiction to News...Kevin Puts' score matches the thriller content in its energetic soundscape and in its fast-paced constant pulse"
The Topeka Capital-Journal
Sunflower includes recent work The Miro Quartet plays two-year-old ‘Credo’ at Thursday night’s concert
‘The Hours’ Will Bring Renée Fleming Back to the Met
Kevin Puts’s new opera had its premiere in a Philadelphia Orchestra concert presentation before coming to New York this fall.
Classical Music Review: In hands of Miró Quartet, Kevin Puts’ ‘Credo’ astounds
"It's not often the a brand new piece of music - 19 minutes' worth, no less - hits you right in the solar plexus."