Has Winning the Pulitzer Made a Difference? Wayne Peterson, Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Music
Wayne Peterson Photo by Jack McDonald, courtesy C. F. Peters Corp. |
Winning the Pulitzer has meant nothing for the piece that won. Back when Blomstedt was at the San Francisco Symphony, David Zinman conducted it and did a beautiful job. But they never did it again and nobody else has ever played it. It’s a very difficult piece. I write chromatic music and chromatic music is not in vogue at the moment. I think that has not helped things.
The Prize has benefited me in other ways, however. You get a lot of notoriety out of it. My commissions have soared and everything I have written since that time has been published. And I am fortunate enough to have some of the best musicians in the world playing my chamber music, which has led to a CD that has just come out.
[Hear a sample of Wayne Peterson’s Pulitzer Prize winning piece in our Sonic Gallery of the Pulitzer Prize.]