Type: Exhibition case

Name: Robert Moevs

Detail: "How can one classify him? As a romantic, perhaps, or impressionist, but with a modern tongue. This man is following no trails; he is blazing highways." (Harold Rogers in the Christian Science Monitor, February 13, 1960.) Robert Moevs (1920–2007) was born in a German-speaking community in La Crosse, Wisconsin. His unusual musical talent became apparent at an early age; he gave his first solo piano recital at the age of nine. After graduating from Harvard, where he studied with Walter Piston, Moevs served as a pilot in the Second World War. After the war, he moved to Paris to work with acclaimed pianist Nadia Boulanger before returning to teach at Harvard. In 1964, Moevs joined the faculty of Rutgers University, where he taught composition until his retirement in 1991. Although his compositions were performed publicly as early as the 1940s, Moevs burst onto the international scene in 1959 with the premier of Attis, his setting of the Catullus poem for tenor, chorus, and orchestra commissioned by the Boston Symphony. Described as "bold and startling," the work has been compared to Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps. Moevs ultimately wrote over seventy-five compositions in various idioms. He had a unique voice, which does not fit into any one category.