Dorothy Rudd Moore

Biography

Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940-2022), received commissions from the National Symphony, Opera Ebony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic, among many solo artists. Considered one of her generation's leading composers of color, her music has been performed and recorded world-wide, and includes chamber pieces, song cycles, orchestral music, and an opera, and is admired for its high level of artistry and its seriousness of purpose.  Other awards she has received include an American Music Center Grant, 1972; New York State Council on the Arts Grant, 1985; and several Meet the Composer grants. Two of her works, Dirge and Deliverance, and Songs From the Dark Tower were released by Performance Records in 1981 and reissued in 2021. In 1985, the world premiere of her opera, Frederick Douglass, took place in New York City.

Moore's parents fully supported her ambitions to be a composer. She studied piano at the Wilmington School of Music and became a student of Harry Andrews. Moore learned to play clarinet so that she could join the all-male band at Howard High. She graduated from Howard University in 1963 where she studied with Dean Warner Lawson, Thomas Kerr, and Mark Fax. She received the Lucy Moten Fellowship to study in France where she continued her studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1963 and then with Chou Wen-Chung in New York in 1965. In 1968 she became a co-founder of the Society of Black Composers in New York City. As an educator, she has taught voice, piano, and ear training courses at Harlem School of the Arts, 1965-66; New York University, 1969; and Bronx Community College, 1971. She passed away on March 30, 2022. 

For more info:

Interview 1990 with Bruce Duffie

Interviews and Music on Youtube

Also see From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music  
by Helen Walker-Hill  (Author)

 

PHOTO BY BERT ANDREWS, from ACA Archives, Special Collections in Performing Arts, University of Maryland.

***Notice: Any recordings of songs or vocal music by Dorothy Rudd Moore need to be licensed and clearances obtained from all legal rightsholders, including ACA, text authors and their estates. Purchase of a score does not transfer recording rights.

ACE Publications

36 title(s)
Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
Dorothy Rudd Moore Baroque Suite for Unaccompanied Cello Cello Solo
Dorothy Rudd Moore CHARITY Two Sopranos and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore DIRGE and DELIVERANCE Cello and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore DREAM AND VARIATIONS for PIANO Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore Dream Variation - from "From the Dark Tower" Voice, Cello, and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore FLOWERS OF DARKNESS Tenor and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH from the Opera "Frederick Douglass" Baritone and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore FREDERICK DOUGLASS, An Opera in 3 Acts 2-1-Ehn-2-bcl-1,2-2-1-btbn-0,perc,timp,pf,strings, Vocal Soloists
Dorothy Rudd Moore FROM THE DARK TOWER - chamber version 8 songs Mezzo-Soprano, Cello, and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore FROM THE DARK TOWER II Mezzo and Orchestra - new edition 8 movements Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra
2-2-ehn-2-bcl-2, 4-3-2-btbn-1,cel,timp, harp, str, Mezzo-Sop
Dorothy Rudd Moore IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE Two Sopranos and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore IN CELEBRATION Mixed Chorus, Soprano and Baritone soloists, and Chamber Orchestra
1010 - 0000 -timp, perc, pno - SATB, Sop & Bar Soli - strings
Dorothy Rudd Moore IN CELEBRATION, piano/vocal score SATB Chorus with Soprano and Baritone Soloists and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore LITTLE WHIMSY Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore LULLABY from the opera Frederick Douglass - song version Soprano and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore LULLABY from the opera Jocelyn of Benjamin Godard Two Sopranos and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore MODES FOR STRING QUARTET String Quartet
Dorothy Rudd Moore MOODS Viola and Cello
Dorothy Rudd Moore NIGHT FANTASY Clarinet and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore ON WINGS OF SONG, for 2 sopranos, piano Two Sopranos and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore ONE AT A TIME, TWO AT A TIME - voice and piano Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
Dorothy Rudd Moore PAPA DOC - Opera in One Act
Dorothy Rudd Moore PIANO TRIO No.1 Violin, Cello, and Piano

Additional Works