The Shepherd School is proud to welcome Kevin Puts as its Guest-Composer-in-Residence! The Shepherd School Contemporary Ensemble is dedicating an entire performance to his works.
Pulitzer Prize and Grammy®-winning composer Kevin Puts is celebrated as one of America’s leading composers, praised by Opera News as “a master polystylist” and The New York Times as creating “plush, propulsive” music. His work has been commissioned and performed by the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and Philadelphia Orchestra. Puts has collaborated with world-class artists, from Renée Fleming to Yo-Yo Ma.
Repertoire
Kevin Puts: Seven Seascapes (2013)
Kevin Puts: Arcana
INTERMISSION
Kevin Puts: “She may pick up her pen” from The Hours – Audrey Welsh, mezzo-soprano
Artists
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts has established himself as one of America’s leading composers, gaining international acclaim for his “plush, propulsive” music (The New York Times), and described by Opera News as “a master polystylist.”
He has been commissioned and performed by leading organizations around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Opera Philadelphia, Minnesota Opera, and many more, and has collaborated with world-class artists such as Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Marin Alsop, among others.
Recognized for his dynamic presence, insightful interpretations, versatility and commanding technique, Taiwanese-American conductor Jerry Hou serves as the Resident Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Grand Teton Music Festival.
Mezzo-soprano Audrey Welsh is a Houston native in her second year of study pursuing a Master of Music degree under the tutelage of Professor Nova Thomas. Some past roles include Mae Jones in Street Scene, Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Petra in A Little Night Music, and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors.
This past summer Ms. Welsh was a Festival Artist with Opera Saratoga, covering the role of Sibella Hallward in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and premiering a new opera by Clarice Assad, The Selfish Giant. This spring Ms. Welsh will perform the role of Dido in the Shepherd School Opera’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Ms. Welsh is the 2023-24 recipient of the Betty “Kit” Clark Award.