Composition faculty member Kevin Puts has been named the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music. Puts won for his work Silent Night, an opera in two acts with libretto by Mark Campbell, “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.”
“Kevin Puts joins a distinguished company of Pulitzer Prize winners, including Aaron Copland in 1945 for Appalachian Spring and Peabody alumnus Dominick Argento in 1975 for From the Diary of Virginia Woolf,” said Jeffrey Sharkey, director of the Peabody Institute. “We are all delighted with this latest addition to the remarkable history of Peabody’s Composition Department, where Pulitzer winner Elliott Carter and many other leading composers have taught. That Kevin and his faculty colleagues are continuing this tradition of creative excellence is a source of great pride.”
Coverage of the prize
- A Pulitzer for Opera, The New Yorker, 4/18/12
- Peabody composer wins Pulitzer Prize in music, The Baltimore Sun, 4/16/12
- Kevin Puts Wins Music Pulitzer For World War I Opera ‘Silent Night’, NPR Music, 4/16/12
- Kevin Puts Wins 2012 Pulitzer Prize, NewMusicBox, 4/16/12
More about Silent Night
- Hear The Opera That Just Won The Pulitzer (NPR Music’s stream of the full opera)
- Minnesota Opera’s Silent Night YouTube channel
More about Kevin Puts
- In the Moment, Symphony, March/April 2010
- Puts talks to Peabody Magazine about his work Credo
