moderncv cover letter recipient data line length

Question

I am writing a cover letter and CV using moderncv. The resulting output wraps the first two lines of the recipient information, making four lines, even though it's unnecessary (in this case). How can I change the output of the recipient data so that the committee name is on only one line and the school name is only on one line?

Here is a MWE:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper,sans]{moderncv}
\moderncvstyle{classic}
\moderncvcolor{black}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
\nopagenumbers{}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[scale=0.75]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}

%% Personal data
\firstname{New PhD}
\familyname{Scholar}
\address{31415 Pi Street}{Largeville, ND, 58202}
\mobile{+1~(502)~321~1234}
\email{[email protected]}

\begin{document}

% recipient data
\recipient{New Work and Research Studies Search Committee\\E. Pluribus Unum School of Grant Proposals and Other Funding}{Blueberry University\\204 N. Peach Ave.\\Buymore, WI 78115}
\date{\today}
\opening{Dear Committee Members,}
\closing{Regards,}

\makelettertitle
\lipsum
\makeletterclosing
\end{document}

Answer 1

Update (moderncv v2.0)

With moderncv v2.0, the command to be patched is no more \makelettertitle but \makeletterhead, so the correct patch for this version is

\patchcmd{\makeletterhead}
  {\begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}}
  {\begin{minipage}[t]{.7\textwidth}}
  {}
  {}

---

Original answer (works with older versions of moderncv)

You can patch the command \makelettertitle so that the minipage containing this data is a little bigger. That is, add the following lines in the preamble (the package etoolbox is loaded by moderncv):

\patchcmd{\makelettertitle}
  {\begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}}
  {\begin{minipage}[t]{.7\textwidth}}
  {}
  {}

MWE:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper,sans]{moderncv}
\moderncvstyle{classic}
\moderncvcolor{black}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
\nopagenumbers{}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[scale=0.75]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\patchcmd{\makelettertitle}
  {\begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}}
  {\begin{minipage}[t]{.7\textwidth}}
  {}
  {}

%% Personal data
\firstname{New PhD}
\familyname{Scholar}
\address{31415 Pi Street}{Largeville, ND, 58202}
\mobile{+1~(502)~321~1234}
\email{[email protected]}

\begin{document}

% recipient data
\recipient{New Work and Research Studies Search Committee\\E. Pluribus Unum School of Grant Proposals and Other Funding}{Blueberry University\\204 N. Peach Ave.\\Buymore, WI 78115}
\date{\today}
\opening{Dear Committee Members,}
\closing{Regards,}

\makelettertitle
\lipsum
\makeletterclosing
\end{document} 

Output: