Undine Smith Moore

Undine Smith Moore

Undine Smith Moore (25 August 19046 February 1989) was a notable and prolific female African-American composers of the 20th century.

She began studying piano at age seven, and at the age of 20 became the first graduate of Fisk University to receive a scholarship to Juilliard. Graduating cum laude in 1926, she because supervisor of music for the Goldsboro, North Carolina public school system.

She began teaching piano, organ and music theory at Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) in 1927, remaining a member of the faculty until she retired in 1972. She commuted to New York's Columbia University between 1929 and 1931 and received her Master of Arts in Teaching.

In 1938 she married Dr. James Arthur Moore and on 4 January 1941 they had a daughter, Mary Hardie.

Moore was a visiting professor at Carleton College and the College of Saint Benedict, and an adjunct professor at Virginia Union University during the 1970s. Amongst her many awards were the National Association of Negro Musicians Distinguished Achievement Award in 1975 and the Virginia Governor’s Award in the Arts in 1985.

She was awarded honorary Doctor of Music degrees by Virginia State College (1972) and Indiana University (1976) and in 1977 was named music laureate of Virginia.

Known to some as the "Dean of Black Women Composers," Moore's career in composition began while she was at Fisk. While her range of compositions include works for piano and for other instrumental groups, Moore is more widely known for her choral works. "Scenes from the Life of a Martyr", a 16-part oratorio on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for chorus, orchestra, solo voices and narrator was premiered at Carnegie Hall and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Other familiar compositions are "Afro-American Suite for flute, violoncello, and piano"; "Lord, We Give Thanks to Thee" for chorus, "Daniel, Daniel, Servant of the Lord" for chorus, and "Love, Let the Wind Cry How I Adore Thee".

Undine Smith Moore died in Petersburg, Virginia on February 6, 1989.

External links

* http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/destiny/notable/smith.htm
* http://www.internationalopus.com/cgi-bin/io.pl?mode=composer&composer=100


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of female composers — The following is a list of female composers, ordered by birthyear.until 1500* Sappho (born c. 612 BCE) * Xosroviduxt ( fl. early 8th century) * Sahakduxt ( fl. early 8th century) * Kassia (c.810–before 867) * Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) *… …   Wikipedia

  • List of female composers by name — This article provides a list of female composers by name, alphabetically. For lists of female composers by date, see List of female composers. NOTOC A* Mary Anne A beckett (1817–1863) * Keiko Abe (born 1937) * Rosalina Abejo (1922–1991) * Lora… …   Wikipedia

  • List of composers of African descent — *Michael Abels, USA (born 1962) *Muhal Richard Abrams, USA (born 1930) *William J. Accooe, USA (died 1904) *Alton Augustus Adams, Sr. USA (1889 1987) *Leslie Adams, USA (born 1932) *Eleanor Alberga, Jamaica (born 1949) *Amanda Christina Elizabeth …   Wikipedia

  • American art song — The composition of art song in America began slowly in the Colonial and Federal periods, expanded greatly in the 19th century, and has become a distinguished and highly regarded addition to the classical music repertoire in the 20th and 21st… …   Wikipedia

  • List of American composers — The following is a partial list of American composers. For a more complete list, see A *Rod Abernethy video games, film and TV *John Coolidge Adams (born 1947), minimalist *Leroy Anderson (1908–1975) *T. J. Anderson (born 1928) *Alfredo Antonini… …   Wikipedia

  • List of asteroids named after people — This is a list of asteroids named after people, both real and fictional.cience Mathematicians *1001 Gaussia (Carl Friedrich Gauss) *1005 Arago (François Arago) *1006 Lagrangea (Joseph Louis Lagrange) *1858 Lobachevskij (Nikolai Lobachevsky) *1859 …   Wikipedia

  • Hans Werner Henze — (1960) Hans Werner Henze (* 1. Juli 1926 in Gütersloh) ist ein deutscher Komponist. Der im italienischen Marino (Provinz Rom) lebende Henze gehört zu den bedeutendsten deut …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • List of World War II topics (H) — # H 8 bomber # H hour (D day) # H. A. Sinclair de Rochemont# H. Emory Widener, Jr. # H. H. Kung # H. Keith Thompson # H. L. N. Salmon # H. Montgomery Hyde # H. Ryan Price # H. Stuart Hughes # H. W. Whillock # Höcker Album # Höfle Telegram # Hôtel …   Wikipedia

  • The opera corpus — is a list of nearly 2,500 works by more than 775 individual opera composers. Some of the works listed below are still being performed today   but many are not. The principal works of the major composers are given as well as those of historical… …   Wikipedia

  • Liste bekannter Schauspielerdynastien — Als Schauspielerdynastie wird eine Familie bezeichnet, in denen seit Generationen viele Mitglieder bekannte Schauspieler wurden oder in der Film , Theater , Musik oder Fernsehbranche arbeiten. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Deutschland 1.1 Die Familie… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”