Devoted to themes of social justice and the artist’s vision, Carter’s work focuses on historical stories that cross over boundaries of race and power. His early song cycle, Shouts, faces, cities and lonely roads (1990) evokes the images and aspirations of the civil rights era. In October 2022, the Santa Fe Opera premiered his and librettist Diana Solomon-Glover’s This Little Light of Mine, based on the life of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. In 2015, the Center for Contemporary Opera showcased his opera-in-progress, Bobby, based on the life of Robert Kennedy with a libretto by Stephen Molton. He wrote the words and music for No Easy Walk to Freedom, based on the life of Nelson Mandela, which was premiered at The Riverside Church in New York City in 2001. Strange Fruit, based on the tragic novel by Lillian Smith and libretto by Joan Ross Sorkin, was showcased in New York City Opera’s Vox series and opened Long Leaf Opera’s 2007 inaugural summer festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Long Leaf Opera also premiered his one-act monodrama Mercury Falling, written for tenor and librettist Daniel Neer, in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2009.

            In addition to his operatic work, Carter has composed over fifty songs and numerous choral, chamber and orchestral works, which have been performed internationally by distinguished recitalists, choirs and ensembles, including the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Riverside Church Choir and the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra. Carter has received several awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

            Carter is Professor of Music and head of composition at Hofstra University. Also a respected scholar, his book, The Last Opera: The Rake’s Progress in the Life of Stravinsky and Sung Drama, was published by Indiana University Press in 2019. He is currently writing a textbook, Stories in Sound Through Time: Music as Cultural Act.