“I Ask Myself, 'How Can I Make My Music More Clear and Fresh, Like
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In the Moment I ask myself, ‘How can I make “my music more clear and fresh, like Mozart’s? says Kevin Puts. I’m always ” looking for ways “to create that kind of spirit and beauty.” by Ann McCutchan Eschewing the ivory tower, composer Kevin Puts Momentaims to communicate with performers and audiences— without compromising his individual voice. “I know there’s still a fear among some of commissioned symphonies, plus six con- trace influences and proclivities. Puts says us,” says Kevin Puts, “that trying to hold certi for such solo artists as Yo-Yo Ma and that manuscripts he produced during his the audience rapt with attention means Evelyn Glennie. In the case of Glennie, the teens reveal some of the same melodic and you’re selling out, you’re not a real com- Percussion Concerto—commissioned by harmonic tendencies his music exhibits to- poser. But for me, composing is much the Utah and Pacific symphony orchestras, day. “I can’t really escape them,” he says. “I more complicated than the communica- and premiered by the latter in 2006—was found I couldn’t develop my voice through tion of an abstract idea. First thing, I’ve in part the result of her positive experience a series of intellectual decisions related to got to revel in the kinds of musical lan- with Puts’s Marimba Concerto, which she style, I could only do it through the actual guage that I care most deeply about, or I and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra had writing. You start to shed things that don’t can’t write anything convincing; I might as premiered in 1997. interest you, that don’t feel genuine, and well be dead as try to work within some- Puts’s success stems largely from his re- hopefully you have a voice at the end of all one else’s aesthetic realm. Second thing— spect for the social aspects of composition, that.” and this is not the primary aim of every wherein all sides of the composer-perform- He cites several composers who have composer, but I admit that it is mine—I er-listener triangle are ideally congruent. made a big impact on his work, and inter- want to communicate. I want audiences Often the performer forms the base of that estingly, they’re all great orchestrators. Stra- to be held in the moment, and be taken to triangle. Glennie, for example, looks for vinsky is “endlessly fascinating,” he says, the next moment. If that’s not happening, new pieces she personally wants to per- and so is John Adams. Puts recalls that I feel like I’m falling short.” form and introduce to others. With Puts’s when he first heard Adams’s The Chairman Puts (pronounced like its generic name- work, she says, “There’s a harmonic satis- Dances, in a performance by a student or- sake, the verb “puts”) undoubtedly speaks faction that people can relate to. Also, he’s chestra at the Eastman School of Music, “I for many other composers who never took not frightened of writing a melody—and to was just floored by it. I went straight to the totally to the ivory tower or the electronic write a melody is one of the hardest things piano and started improvising in this kind studio basement, who never refrained from to do. He taps into a beauty that seems to of style. It was minimalism more beauti- writing a distinguishable melody or a gut- resonate with audiences. He’s very confi- fully orchestrated than what I’d heard—a felt tonal progression out of fear that it dent that he has a particular voice, and one real dazzling use of the orchestra, like Rav- would cramp their careers. Puts, 37, is one he knows he can develop. He’s not trying to el.” Puts also admires the music of Michael of a growing number of composers writing sound like another composer, not following Torke, and was awe-struck when he came for orchestra today who’ve refused to com- trends. He’s completely comfortable with across the “Color Music” pieces from early promise their unique voices but who remain what feels right for him as a composer.” in that composer’s career. Orchestral color, mindful of the need to communicate, both says Puts, is often the generating element with fellow artists and with an audience. Genesis of an Orchestral Voice in his own music. The evidence lies in his sizable orches- Pinpointing where a composer’s voice orig- But Mozart is his key obsession. “I go tral catalogue, which already includes four inates is hardly a simple matter, but one can through times when I ask myself, ‘How can americanorchestras.org 39 With much of Puts’s I make my music more clear and fresh, like music, it’s 10,000 in the south- Young Concert Artists and the California Mozart’s?’ It’s not that I want to plagiarize. important to central part of the Symphony. Over the next three years, that But I am always looking for ways to create understand state. His father is orchestra premiered his orchestral compo- that kind of spirit and beauty, that balance some of a mathematics pro- sitions Network, Exalted Virelai (after Guil- and perfection and leanness of sound—and the socio- fessor at Alma Col- laume de Machaut), and Symphony No. 1. the instinctual knowledge, upon listening, lege, and his mother enjoyed subsequent performances political Network that everything is there for a reason.” taught high school by the Baltimore and Cincinnati symphony Clarity and balance were foremost in narratives English until her re- orchestras. The commissions began to ac- Puts’s mind in April 2009, when clarinetist that have cent retirement. Puts cumulate. Puts accepted a teaching post in Bil Jackson and the Colorado Symphony inspired him. received his bach- composition at the University of Texas in Orchestra, under the baton of Music Direc- Dramatic elor’s degree from the fall of 1999. He soon realized that the tor Jeffrey Kahane, premiered Puts’s Clari- examples of the Eastman School demands of full-time university life were net Concerto, a work commissioned by this would of Music, where not to his liking, however, and in 2005 he new-music philanthropist Kathryn Gould be his two his principal teach- left Austin for New York, the city where through the nonprofit organization Meet works that ers were composers he and his wife, New York Philharmonic The Composer. It’s scored for chamber or- arose from Samuel Adler and violinist Lisa GiHae Kim, now make their chestra, in this case an ensemble consisting the calamity Joseph Schwantner. home. But the insular existence of a full- only of strings, harp, percussion, and piano. of September He went to Yale for a time working composer proved to be as un- In rehearsals Puts consulted often with Ka- master’s in composi- satisfying as the academic schedule he had 11, 2001. hane on the balance between soloist and tion, and returned to maintained in Austin. To restore some bal- orchestra. Some players were cut, others Eastman to pursue ance to his professional life Puts has joined were asked to sit out particular passages— a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, studying the adjunct faculty of Peabody Institute, typical adjustments made during a work’s composition with Christopher Rouse and commuting to Baltimore two days a week. first outing. piano with Nelita True. At Tanglewood he “I tend to be a hermit in New York,” he “People were telling me the balance received further guidance in composition says. “I don’t think most people even know problems were due to the hall,” Puts says, from Bernard Rands and William Bolcom. I live in New York. I go to concerts and “but that wasn’t it. I’ve found that if you get Rouse describes Puts as an artist who pos- they say, ‘How’s Texas?’ And I say, ‘I haven’t everything right in a piece, it sounds good sesses “a dazzling array of talents. He’s a lived there for five years!’ I really should get in every hall.” A well-crafted piece, he adds, profoundly musical composer who has al- out more, but I just don’t like to schmooze, can also hold up well even in a less-than- ways been open to trying new things rather and I don’t feel like I fit into the New York ideal performance. “Mozart, for example, than getting caught in a rut. What he’s pro- new-music scene. I’m not downtown, I’m sounds really good even if a youth orchestra duced is deeply impressive.” not uptown—I don’t know where I am!” plays it. Of course you hear things that are In 1996, when he was 24, Puts was Puts may not characterize himself as a wrong, like intonation, but it still somehow named composer-in-residence for both networker, but he has established a reputa- sounds. It works, it’s convincing. So that’s what I try for.” Puts confers with Music Director Marin Colorado Symphony musicians report Alsop during a rehearsal of California’s favorably on the Clarinet Concerto. “It’s Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in 2005. beautiful—he did a masterful job,” says Pe- ter Cooper, the CSO’s principal oboist (and one of the bench-warmers for this piece). Concertmaster Yumi Hwang-Williams, a musician highly experienced in contem- porary repertoire through her other role as concertmaster of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in California, calls Puts “a good craftsman, very meticulous. It’s a privilege to work directly with a composer, and I’ve always enjoyed Kevin’s pieces.