Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, Kweku Poku. Here, you will hear conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journeys as musicians, and their thoughts on today’s new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music.
To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we have conducted so far, information about our outreach programs with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene.
Today’s interview was conducted by Jean Park.
In this interview, composer Kevin Puts discusses his creative process and his views on contemporary classical music. He explains that inspiration comes differently with every project. When writing an opera, he begins with the story and becomes emotionally invested in its characters. For instrumental music, inspiration may come from a personal experience or an event in the world. He often develops his first musical ideas by improvising at the piano and believes that the opening of a piece must draw the audience into the music.
Puts discusses his Concerto for Orchestra, written for the St. Louis Symphony. The work explores the lyrical and virtuosic possibilities of the orchestra. Its initial inspiration came from Amanda Gorman’s poem Hymn for the Hurting, written in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. After reading the poem, Puts imagined chorale-like music. This opening theme returns throughout the concerto, helping listeners recognize the musical material and follow the structure of the piece.
He has become increasingly interested in writing distinctive melodies that listeners can remember and will want to hear again. Inspired by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin, he tries to create melodies with clear and memorable identities. At the same time, he believes that composers should remain open to many musical possibilities, including classical music, pop, film music, folk music, and music from different cultures.
According to Puts, one of the greatest challenges for contemporary composers is that their works are often performed alongside masterpieces by composers such as Beethoven and Mozart. Modern composers must therefore develop excellent technique, understand how to write effectively for every instrument, and create music that performers genuinely want to play. They must also overcome the audience’s assumption that new music will automatically be dissonant, difficult, or unpleasant.
Puts argues that accessible music does not have to be tonal or harmonically pleasing. What matters is the composer’s ability to communicate clearly, shape the musical journey, and guide a first-time listener through the piece. Contemporary music can express emotion not only through melody but also through harmony, texture, and different densities of sound. His advice to young musicians is to listen with an open mind and draw honestly from the musical ideas and influences they truly care about.
