Dorothy Rudd Moore

Dorothy Rudd Moore (born 4 June 1940) is an American composer and music educator. She is one of the co-founders of the Society of Black Composers. Her works were unpublished, but are available through the American Composers Alliance.[1][2]

For other people named Dorothy Moore, see Dorothy Moore (disambiguation).

Biography

Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware.[3] Her mother was a singer and Moore would make up her own songs as child.[4] Moore knew she wanted to become a composer at a young age and took piano lessons as a child. She learned to play clarinet so that in high school, she should join the previously all-male band.[3] She graduated from Howard University in 1963 where she studied with Mark Fax.[5] She received the Lucy Moten Fellowship to study in France where she continued her studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1963 and Chou Wen-Chung in New York in 1965.[6]

Moore worked as a private music teacher, from 1965-66 taught at the Harlem School of the Arts, in 1969 at New York University and in 1971 at the Bronx Community College.[7] She married cellist and conductor, Kermit Moore, in 1964.[8] In 1969, Moore and her husband were almost prevented from performing at the 1969 Damrosch Memorial Concert because "administrators fretted over having not just one but two 'Negroes' on the program."[9]

Moore has received the Lucy Moten fellowship and other grants, and in 1968 became a co-founder of the Society of Black Composers in New York. Her works, Dirge and Deliverance, and Songs from the Dark Tower were released by Performance Records in 1981.[10] In 1985, the world premiere of her opera, Frederick Douglass, took place in New York City.[11]

Between 1988 and 1990, she sat on the music panel of the New York State Council of the Arts.[12]

Works

Moore has composed song cycles, chamber pieces, orchestral music and an opera. Selected works include:

  • Three Pieces for violin and piano, 1967
  • Modes for string quartet, 1968
  • Dirge and Deliverance for cello and piano, 1971
  • Dream and Variations for piano, 1974
  • Twelve Quatrains from the Rubaiyat, song cycle, 1962
  • Songs from the Dark Tower, song cycle, 1970
  • Lament for Nine Instruments, 1969
  • Moods for viola and cello, 1969
  • Symphony No. 1, 1963
  • Transencion, 1986[1]
  • Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds, and Death for soprano, violin, and piano
  • In Celebration, a collage to poems by Langston Hughes
  • Frederick Douglass, opera, 1985

References
  1. Horne, Aaron (1996). Brass music of black composers: a bibliography (Digitized online by GoogleBooks). ISBN 9780313298264. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
  2. Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian (1994). The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers (Digitized online by GoogleBooks). ISBN 9780393034875. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  3. "Dorothy Rudd Moore". American Composers Alliance. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
  4. Banfield, William C. (2013). Musical Landscapes in Color: Conversations with Black American Composers. Scarecrow Press. p. 113. ISBN 9780585464169.
  5. "Dorothy Rudd Moore (b. 1940), African American Composer of 'Frederick Douglass'". Africlassical. 8 December 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  6. "Dorothy Rudd Moore". Hildegard Publishing Company. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  7. Bracks, Lean'tin (2012). African American Almanac. Visible Ink Press. pp. 310–311. ISBN 9781578593231.
  8. Fox, Margalit (11 November 2013). "Kermit Moore, Cellist, Conductor and Composer, Is Dead at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  9. Leonard, Kendra (2007). ""Excellence in Execution" and "Fitness for Teaching": Assessments of Women at the Conservatoire Americain". Women & Music. doi:10.1353/wam.2007.0017. S2CID 144137483. Archived from the original on 2016-03-14. Retrieved 10 January 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
  10. Davis, Peter G. (6 September 1981). "Five Black Artists Are Featured on a New Label". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  11. Page, Tim (30 June 1985). "Opera World Premier of 'Frederick Douglass'". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  12. Cheatham, Wallace (1997). Dialogues on Opera and the African-American Experience. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 69. ISBN 0810831473.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.