Pulitzer Prize winning composer Paul Moravec creates exciting musical drama– in the form of opera, oratorio, and choral works– on American themes.  Notable recent accomplishments include Sanctuary Road, an opera based on Underground Railroad narratives; the orchestral work A New Country, with settings of Whitman and Emma Lazarus; and A Nation of Others, an oratorio celebrating Ellis Island that premiered at Carnegie Hall on November 15, 2022.  Please join WWI president Karen Karbiener for an informal conversation with Paul on why and how he is inspired to sing America’s stories.

Paul Moravec, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, has composed over 200 orchestral, chamber, lyric, and operatic works.  A graduate of Harvard and Columbia universities, he holds the distinguished rank of University Professor at Adelphi University, and has served as Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton as well as Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome.  His website is paulmoravec.com and his works are published by subitomusic.com.

Karen Karbiener, president and founding member of the Walt Whitman Initiative, is a Whitman scholar and teaches at New York University. Winner of the Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress and a Fulbright recipient, she has published widely on Whitman and is currently completing a biography of the poet during his New York years.

We look forward to seeing you for the livestream on our YouTube channel on December 2nd at 9 am (EST).