NY-based composer and Peabody Institute faculty member Kevin Puts won 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music with his first opera "Silent Night" on Monday.
The jury 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."
"When I was composing it, I felt like it was in some ways easier than anything I've ever written," Puts said in an interview with AP.
"It just felt natural for me, my first opera. I just thought as soon as I started: If nothing else, I wanted this to go well enough so I could write another opera," he added.
Puts, 40, studied music at Yale University and the Eastman School of Music. Among his teachers were Joseph Schwantner and David Lang, who have also won Pulitzers. He is a faculty member at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and has composed significant works including symphonies, concertos, and chamber music that have been performed by St. Louis Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Utah Symphony, the Miró Quartet, and Concertante. His Cello Concerto was premiered by Yo-Yo Ma.
His first opera "Silent Night," with a libretto by Mark Campbell, was adapted from the 2005 French film "Joyeux Nöel," which was nominated for an Academy Award. "Silent Night" was commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis in November 2011.
The Pulitzer Prize for Music is given to "a distinguished musical composition of significant dimension by an American that has had its first performance in the United States during the year" with a $10,000 prize. This is the second consecutive year that an opera has won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Last year's winner was Zhou Long for her opera "Madame White Snake."
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