CONTACT

KEVIN PUTS 

Duration: 30 Minutes

Born in 1972, Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-award winning composer Kevin Puts (whose surname is echoed in the ditty, “Kevin puts the kettle on”), has established himself as one of America’s leading composers, gaining international acclaim for his “plush, propulsive” music (the New York Times). He has been commissioned and performed by leading organizations around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, and has collaborated with world-class artists such as Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and Marin Alsop. 

In March 2022 Puts’ fourth opera, The Hours, had its world premiere on the concert stage by the Philadelphia Orchestra and was hailed as a “historic event.” The Hours then premiered to sold-out houses as a fully-staged production at the Metropolitan Opera in November 2022. Other highlights of 2022 included the west-coast premiere of The Brightness of Light featuring Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Written for Time for Three, his triple concerto Contact had its world premiere in March 2022 and continues to receive performances around the world. A recording of the piece by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Xian Zhang conductor was released on the Deutsche Grammophon album Letters for the Future and was awarded “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Mr. Puts was named Musical America’s Composer of the Year in 2024.

Grammy- and Emmy-winning ensemble Time For Three (TF3) defies conventions with their genre-bending excellence. Comprised of Charles Yang (violin, vocals), Nicolas Kendall (violin, vocals), and Ranaan Meyer (double bass, vocals), the uniqueness of the trio’s instrumentation well matches their sound, which blends eras, styles, and traditions from classical to Americana to singer-songwriter. TF3’s collaborations with Pulitzer Prize winners Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts resulted in the Grammy Award-winning album Letters for the Future. Their charismatic performances on major stages, frequent collaborations with acclaimed artists like Ben Folds and Arlo Guthrie, and commitment both on and offstage to encouraging the next generation of musicians, all showcase TF3’s unwavering dedication to pushing creative boundaries and captivating audiences worldwide.

Contact is in fact a concerto for three instruments; it had its beginnings during the Covid epidemic. Puts has said that “the pandemic was a kind of a blessing in disguise,” which gave him additional time to create the four-movement work that you will hear tonight. The composer has noted that the isolation that people experienced during the pandemic painfully underscored the human need for togetherness, for “contact,” and hence the inspired title for this composition. Puts has said that he was also inspired by the 1997 film Contact, where Jodie Foster plays a scientist charged with making contact with extra-terrestrial beings. Whether for extra-terrestrials or us humans, Puts’ medium is a mix of classical virtuosity, funk, jazz, and pop—and with an emphasis on dramatic stage presence. So the work whose original title was Triple Concerto morphed into Contact. Psychologists and all of us know that music is uniquely able to make life-changing contact, whether with other beings or with those of us more humbly here at home.