A gifted and versatile musician, as comfortable singing a Cole Porter song as conducting an orchestra, Karlos Moser was instrumental in bringing opera to South Central Wisconsin. With University Opera, Moser expanded Wisconsin's appreciation for opera by forming a professional-quality program, which has provided students and audiences with a rich and diverse musical experience. In his career at University Opera, Moser has directed or conducted more than a hundred productions. In addition to his work in the UW-Madison School of Music, he was founding conductor of the Fox Valley Symphony and director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra. Moser's long interest in the Labor Movement found expression in his directing Esperanza, an opera inspired by and adapted from the screenplay for the 1954 pro-Union film, Salt of the Earth. Esperanza won the Governor's Award for Public Humanities Programming in 2001.
