SLSO Releasing New Album of Music by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer Kevin Puts
By Eric Dundon
On April 22, 2004, oboist Lisa McCullough and a string quintet of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians performed Kevin Puts’ Concerto for Oboe at a Live at the Pulitzer chamber music concert. It was the first time the SLSO had ever performed Puts’ music. More than 20 years later, the SLSO and Puts have developed a deep artistic friendship that has developed into many performances of Puts’ music, commissions of new music, and now, a new album of Puts’ music.
On September 19, 2025, the Delos label will release the SLSO’s album featuring the world premiere recordings of three works by Kevin Puts.
Conducted by SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève, the album features Concerto for Orchestra, a six-movement orchestral showcase; Silent Night Elegy, a single-movement essay of music from Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night; and Virelai (after Guillaume de Machaut), composed to celebrate Denève’s inaugural concerts as SLSO Music Director. The SLSO was the lead commissioner and gave the world premiere performances of Concerto for Orchestra and Virelai, and was a co-commissioning orchestra for Silent Night Elegy.
“Discovering during our first conversations that Kevin and I share many similar interests and connections—including St. Louis, a city where he was born and where I live today— helped to create our years-long friendship,” Denève said. “The SLSO likewise has had a rewarding relationship with Kevin for more than 20 years, and this album is a beautiful representation of our musical kinship.”
Recorded at historic Powell Hall in September 2019 (Virelai), February 2020 (Silent Night Elegy) and January 2023 (Concerto for Orchestra), the album is slated for both physical and digital release. Pre-orders begin on August 22, 2025.
Dedicated to the SLSO and Denève, Puts composed Concerto for Orchestrain response to an Amanda Gorman poem written in the wake the horrific school shooting that occurred in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022. Reviewing the 2023 world premiere, St. Louis arts critic Chuck Lavazzi wrote, “While there are certainly solo features for principal players, the overriding impression is of the virtuosic strengths of the full orchestra, with strings, winds, brass, and percussion all taking the lead at times.”
Silent Night Elegy is drawn from Puts’ acclaimed opera, which adapts Joyeux Noël, the award-winning film that tells the story of the spontaneous ceasefires along the Western Front on the first Christmas Eve of World War I. Given its SLSO premiere in February 2020 prior to performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the piece received an enthusiastic and prolonged reception. And Denève selected Puts’ music as the very first he led on a subscription concert with the SLSO in 2019. Virelai, a brief and celebratory fanfare, was inspired by Guillaume de Machaut, the 14th-century composer and poet that continues to build and add colors textures, much liked Maurice Ravel’s much-beloved Bolero.
The album celebrates the dynamic partnership between Puts, Denève, and the SLSO.
“I often tell my students about the importance of finding one’s people over the long arc of a career: write the music you care most earnestly about and a supportive network of musicians to coalesce around your work. For me, Stéphane and the SLSO is primary among these,” Puts said. “All three works on this album were fueled by our musical kinship.”
Since those first SLSO performances of his music in 2004, Puts has been a close artistic collaborator of the orchestra. The album release coincides with the start of Puts’ tenure as the SLSO’s Composer in Residence for the 2025/26 season, which celebrates the reopening of the orchestra’s venue, Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center, following a transformational expansion and renovation. The opening weekend of concerts features the world premiere of an SLSO-commissioned song cycle by Puts, House of Tomorrow, featuring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. Puts’ music will be performed throughout the season, including Concerto for Orchestra and Virelai, as well as Contact, a concerto for string trio and orchestra, and Home, a string quartet piece performed at a Live at The Sheldon chamber music concert.
His tenure as SLSO Composer in Residence, as well as the release of his music, carries special significance for Puts.
“As a native of St. Louis, it is especially meaningful to hear my work endorsed so expertly by the great musicians of the SLSO, an orchestra which I have known since my earliest years,” he said.
And for Denève, the album is a demonstration of the power of music.
“Kevin’s music is a symphonic tour de force which proves that wondrously crafted music of our time can touch the heart as well as the mind,” he said.
Puts’ music is published worldwide by G. Ricordi & Co., New York, a Universal Music Publishing Classics & Screen company.
This SLSO release is the latest in a robust history of recordings that has resulted in nine Grammy Award wins. Most recently, the SLSO, in conjunction with Pentatone, released the SLSO’s inaugural recordings with Denève and violinist James Ehnes with music by Leonard Bernstein and John Williams. The SLSO won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for the Nonesuch release of John Adams’ City Noir conducted by former Music Director David Robertson.
Eric Dundon is the SLSO’s Public Relations Director.
