In response to Ray Bayles, Margaret Mikulska asks, concerning Aaron Jay
Kernis' awards,

>Pulitzer?  You sure (sic) you don't mean Grawemeyer?

No, Margaret, Ray meant "Pulitzer"- that begins with 'P' and rhymes with
'C'- ...  otherwise I'm sure he would have said "Grawemeyer", or whatever
the prize was.

Critic Anthony Tommasini, in today's New York Times, noted, in his account
of the opening of Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, a well-known river city:

   ... the program opened with a commissioned work, "Color Wheel" by
   Aaron Jay Kernis, a Philadelphia native who has gone on to a Pulitzer
   Prize-winning career. Mr. Kernis learly felt that the occasion called
   for a splashy public piece.

   He describes "Color Wheel" as a 15-minute concerto for orchestra,
   and it's a whirlwind of spiraling riffs, pulsating "Rite of Spring"
   poundings and a moody Gerswhinesque middle section with an ambling
   electric bass.  It seems a consciously accessible, neo-Romantic work
   with big surging melodic moments and a brassy climactic, cymbal-clashing
   finale.  The work certainly gave the orchestra a chance to show off.
   Yet even with the hall full the sound was bright, a bit clinical.
   Balances favored the percussion and brass.  The violins came through
   more fully than the cellos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/17/arts/music/17KIMM.html

By the way, Kernis won the Pulitzer several years ago for his second string
quartet, which this listener very much hopes to hear again and which he
commends to all who cherish the genre.  It's quite a fine string quartet,
for an American.

Larry