Complaining about both the artistic quality as well as the financial state of contemporary music has become a habitual mantra, but to some composers at least life is still what you make it. Paul Moravec, for example, is decidedly neither quixotic nor naive for believing that these are the "best of times and the worst of times". It might be easy to dismiss this as an easy statement by someone who has enjoyed the rare privilege of being succesful - Moravec was awarded the 2004 Pullitzer Prize and his work has been recorded by major record companies such as BMG and Naxos (as part of their American Classics series). But this success has nothing to do with the shameless exploitation of connections or with transitory trends. Rather, it can be attributed to his unique combination of romantic passages with a decidedly modern view on arrangements and instrumentation, as well as with his talent for finding "concepts" (in a not too strict sense of the word) capable of inspiring the imagination of a colourful and diverse audience - and remaining "intelligible" for listeners, instead of appearing "intelligent" for the elite. And despite his acchievments, he has decided not to rest on his laurels, but to keep churning out new music at a high frequency. Listening to his compositions allows for the hope that "new" music will eventually be able to draw the crowds back into the concert halls - these are the best of times indeed.