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Kevin Puts
Young American Composer-in-Residence, 1996-1999
Kevin Puts, one of the most promising young composers in the United States, continues to be recognized for composing works that show a distinctive and appealing musical voice. He premiered three works during his residency with the California Symphony.
His honors include the 2003 Benjamin H. Danks Award for Excellence in Orchestral Composition of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a 2001 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, a 2001-2002 Rome Prize in Composition, and the 1999 Barlow International Competition, which resulted in premieres by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Utah Symphony.
Mr. Puts has upcoming commissioned premieres scheduled with the Altanta Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Meet the Composer's "Magnum Opus" project, which will be performed by the Oakland East Bay, Santa Rosa and Marin symphonies in California. He has also been commissioned by The Phoenix Symphony and by the American Composers Orchestra/BMI Foundation, for a premiere at the 25th Anniversary Concert of the American Composers Orchestra with conductor Dennis Russell Davies at Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Puts's works have been performed by the Boston Pops, the Atlanta Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz. Chosen as Young Concert Artists' Composer-in-Residence by a panel of distinguished alumni, Mr. Puts wrote two critically-acclaimed compositions for members of the YCA roster during his tenure: Canyon, written for marimbist Makoto Nakura and premiered in New York at the 92nd Street Y, and Alternating Current, premiered by pianist Jeremy Denk at the Kennedy Center.
Mr. Puts has received commissions from the National Symphony Orchestra, the Institute for American Music, the Pacific Symphony, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Japan's Ensemble Kobe, the Ying Quartet, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the New York Youth Symphony, which premiered his Concerto for Everyone at Carnegie Hall. His work Arches for solo violin, co-commissioned by the Spoleto Festival USA and YCA alumna violinist Chee-Yun, were premiered at the Seoul Arts Center in Korea on a concert broadcast live on KBS television, performed at the Spoleto Festival USA, and will be performed at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall this season.
The first undergraduate to be awarded a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Mr. Puts has also won BMI's 2001 Carlos Surinach Fund Commission, BMI's 1998 William Schuman Prize, three student composer awards from BMI, and three grants from ASCAP, and he was recipient of the 1996 BMI Young Musicians' Foundation Orchestral Premiere.
Mr. Puts received his Bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music, where his principal instructors were Samuel Adler and Joseph Schwantner. He received his Master's Degree from Yale University, where he studied with Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, and David Lang. He also worked with Bernard Rands and William Bolcom at Tanglewood. Mr. Puts earned a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Eastman School of Music, studying composition with Christopher Rouse and piano with Nelita True. Kevin Puts currently serves as assistant professor of composition at the University of Texas at Austin.
To learn more, visit Mr. Puts website.
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