CONSPIRARE BALTIMORE SYM. ORCHESTRA

Kevin Puts (1972) wordt gezien als een van de belangrijkste componisten van zijn generatie in Amerika. Het vermaarde zangensemble Conspire onder leiding van Craig Hella Johnson voert twee eerste opnamen uit van If I were a swan (op een gedicht van zijn tante) en To touch the sky (negen liederen op teksten van vrouwen rondom het Magnificat), waarmee Puts een ode brengt aan de Bijbelse Maria. Dit fascinerende klankweefsel is ook in zijn vierde Symfonie From Mission San Juan, waarbij Puts zich laat inspireren door e oorspronkelijke muziek die ooit klonk rondom Mission San Juan Bautafsta, die de Spanjaarden in 1797 in Californië stichten. Marin Alsop zorgt met de Baltimore Symphony Orchestra voor een bevlogen. Een hedendaagse componist om rekening mee te houden.


Kevin Puts: Symphony No. 4

Symphony No. 4 'From Mission San Juan'
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop
To touch the sky
world première recording
Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson
If I were a swan
world première recording
Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts (b. 1972) is known for his distinctive and richly coloured musical voice. Making their label début, Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra perform Kevin Puts’ Symphony No.4 (From Mission San Juan), inspired by Native American melodies. Opening this programme of world première recordings, Craig Hella Johnson leads Conspirare in two choral settings of texts by women poets: 'To Touch the Sky' and 'If I Were a Swan'.

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for 'Silent Night', an opera commissioned by Minnesota Opera and co-written with librettist Mark Campbell, Kevin Puts has been hailed as one of the most important composers of his generation. His work has been commissioned and performed by leading orchestras in the United States and abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, Tonhalle-Orchester (Zurich), the Saint Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra, and by soloists and chamber ensembles such as Evelyn Glennie, Yo-Yo Ma, Jeffrey Kahane, the Eroica Trio and the Miro Quartet.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he received his training as a composer and pianist at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. Since 2006, he has been a member of the composition department at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.