Despite opera success, Kevin Puts views himself as an orchestral composer

That some think of Kevin Puts as an opera composer is hardly surprising, considering the extraordinary success he has enjoyed in the field.

He has written four operas, starting with Silent Night, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2012. His most recent, The Hours, premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2022 and was reprised the following season — an unusually quick return for any work, especially a new one.

Despite these accomplishments, Puts still sees himself first and foremost as an orchestral composer. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra premiered his Concerto for Orchestra in 2023, and he is working on a concerto for the famed violinist Joshua Bell.

It will be a non-operatic work that Chicago audiences will experience Feb. 10 when famed mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the trio Time For Three perform Emily – No Prisoner Be as part of the Symphony Center Presents Chamber Music Series.

Puts’ 26-movement song cycle consists of 24 settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, the celebrated 19th-century American poet, whose nearly 1,800 poems were not published as a complete set until 1955, and two instrumental interludes.

The 65- to 70-minute work, performed with direction, light design and sound design by Andrew Staples, received its world premiere in August at the Bregenzer Festspiele, a music, opera and theater festival held each summer in Bregenz, Austria. A recording is set to be released Jan. 30 on the Platoon label.

The Symphony Center Presents concert is part of an American tour that starts Feb. 1 in Sonoma, California, and concludes Feb. 22 at Princeton University in New Jersey, with a stop at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Feb. 20.

The enormous success of The Hours, which, like the Oscar-nominated 2002 movie, was an adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s 1998 novel, has been something of a mixed blessing. “I’ve never experienced exposure on that level before,” said Puts, 54, who lives in Yonkers, New York. “It was exhausting, stressful and exciting, but there were so many opinions coming at me not just after the premiere, but beforehand as well.”

He has been inundated with requests for commissions since the opera’s debut and has had to turn some of them down. At the same time, he has had to re-examine his priorities and focus on the collaborations that are the most meaningful to him.

“I think it’s the busiest I’ve ever been,” Puts said. “I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, just figuring out what to do and how much I can handle and still do it well.”

Recent and upcoming works include House of Tomorrow, a song cycle that DiDonato and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra premiered in September, as part of the celebration of the orchestra’s return to its renovated and expanded home, Powell Hall. (Puts, a St. Louis native, is the SLSO’s 2025-26 artist-in-residence.)

In addition, he is working on a chamber-orchestra version of Earth, one of the five sections of The Elements, each written by a different major American composer. Bell, who conceived the project, performed it with the CSO in 2024.

“My measure of success for any piece I write is whether or not it is performed after the premiere,” Puts said. And certainly, The Elements has enjoyed such repeat exposure, with the upcoming reduced arrangement potentially giving it an even greater reach.

As much as Puts has tried to give himself a break from opera after The Hours, he has not been able to completely distance himself from the realm. He is working on a compact version of the opera, with a smaller orchestra and cast, making it easier for companies with smaller budgets to take it on after the Met’s five-year exclusivity window expires.

“I think it’s kind of an intimate piece, really,” he said. “It doesn’t need a huge production, and I’m excited to work on that.”

In addition, the Met has committed to presenting Puts’ first opera, Silent Night, during its 2026/27 season. The work, based on the 2005 film “Joyeux Noël,” directed by Christian Carion, tells of a Christmas truce across the trenches during World War I.

Puts suggested a production of it as a follow-up to The Hours, and Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, quickly agreed: “He called me, and said, ‘Let’s do it. I think it is a great idea.’ ”