Paul Moravec Composes Eisenhower Round for NPR’s Mr. President Series
Subito’s Paul Moravec, along with 15 other composers, is featured in a new project simply titled Mr. President. Choral conductor and educator Judith Clurman commissioned these 16 contemporary composers to write short choral pieces based on the words of American presidents. In celebration of President’s Day, NPR will premiere all 16 works, newly recorded by Clurman and her Essential Voices USA choir this February.
Moravec thinks of Eisenhower as one of America’s strongest presidents — a true leader, right up there with George Washington. And to make the connection between the two presidents in his music, Moravec summoned the spirit of one of this country’s first major composers.
“This work is an homage to Eisenhower, but it’s also an homage to William Billings,” Moravec explains. “He was born in 1744 and he’s probably best known as the composer of the song ‘Chester,’ which was the unofficial anthem of the American Revolution.”
So Moravec, in his “Eisenhower Canon,” is taking the president’s speech and constructing a canon, or round, with repeating lines similar to those in some of Billings’ own canons.
Read the full Mr. President article online
Caramoor International Music Festival Announces Summer 2011 Line-up
Michael Barrett, CEO and General Director of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, today announced the lineup for the 2011 Caramoor International Music Festival, which opens on June 25 and offers enormous appeal to all audiences with a rich array of artists and repertoire from the worlds of classical, jazz, Latin, pop and American Roots music. The 66th season of this iconic summer festival – which is held annually at the Center’s distinguished 90-acre garden estate in Katonah, New York – will run from June 25 to August 10.
On July 22 and 31, Caramoor presents Prizing the Pulitzer, a two-concert celebration of the geniuses nominated for this prestigious award. An impressive compilation of American masterworks – including music by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, Paul Moravec and John Cage – will be performed by the Music from Copland House ensemble. In addition, this cultural touchstone of a program provides concertgoers an opportunity to attend pre- and post-concert discussions about the brilliant composers honored – and in some cases, controversially overlooked – by the prize.
Paul Moravec, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, has composed over one hundred orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film, and electro-acoustic compositions. Among Paul’s numerous awards are the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, a Fellowship in Music Composition from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, a Camargo Foundation Residency Fellowship, two fellowships from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, as well as many commissions. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University, Paul has taught at Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Hunter College, as well as Adelphi University. His opera was recently premiered at Santa Fe.