Hearing The Pulitzers

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore an early work by a composer who transformed American music with his singular vision. But how did a composer who concocted a personal aesthetic reflecting a fa…

We're back with Season 2 of "Hearing The Pulitzers!" 

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the first music winner to incorporate electronics, Leon Kirchner. Kirchner wanted to expand human capabi…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the first music winner in three years, Leslie Bassett. After two decades of honoring fairly conservative, European-derived pieces and two years of not honorin…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew cover the third year the Pulitzer Board decided not to award a music prize. The 1964 decision not to award a prize might have been shocking, but nothing could have pr…

In this episode, Andrew and Dave discuss the second time the Pulitzer Board decided not to award a music prize. In fact, in 1964, they did not give awards in the categories of drama, music, and ficti…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the third person to win two Pulitzers, Samuel Barber. Barber's prize-winning opera Vanessa was a qualified hit in Episode 16, but how does his Piano Concerto …

In this episode, Dave and Andrew turn to the fifth opera to win a Pulitzer Prize, Robert Ward's The Crucible. The opera is based on Arthur Miller's award-winning play that even today is considered an…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew return to Walter Piston, who first won the Pulitzer in 1948 for his Third Symphony. In 1961, not even a year into his retirement, Piston won again for his Seventh Sym…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the first Pulitzer winner of the 1960s, Elliott Carter for his Second String Quartet. Carter's work has been frequently performed, widely celebrated, and heav…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss John La Montaine's first piano concerto, a work that made a splash in the late 1950s only to disappear from the repertoire. Similarly, La Montaine has faded f…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the fourth opera to win the Pulitzer Prize in the 1950s, Samuel Barber's Vanessa. In the mid-20th century United States, Samuel Barber was one of the most per…

Norman Dello Joio is one of those composers you might know depending on your background. Sing choral music? You might know him from A Jubilant Song. Play in band? You might have performed his Fantasi…

Like Gian Carlo Menotti before him, Ernst Toch was a European composer who won an American prize. Unlike Menotti, Toch did not have the same success in the United States that he had in Europe and nev…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the first repeat winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music. We covered Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul in Episode 8 and now he's back again with The Saint of Blee…

Quincy Porter bridges many of the themes we've seen so far in the podcast: he was the last student of nineteenth-century American composer Horatio Parker (who also taught 1947 prize  winner Charles …

As we move further into the 1950s, we're entering the doldrums of the Pulitzer Prizes, where few winners have entered the repertoire. Gail Kubik was a phenomenon in his day, writing equally well for…

Douglas Moore is a name we've encountered before on Hearing the Pulitzers because he was instrumental in helping establish the Pulitzer Prizes. A decade later, he finally won his own Pulitzer for an …

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the winner of the eighth Pulitzer Prize in Music, Gian Carlo Menotti for his opera The Consul.

In the middle part of the 20th century, Menotti was one of th…

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the winner of the seventh Pulitzer Prize in Music, Virgil Thomson for his score to the film Louisiana Story.

Virgil Thomson is perhaps best known for his op…