Background
Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. Her mother was a singer and Moore would make up her own songs as child.
composer music educator musicologist pianist singer
Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. Her mother was a singer and Moore would make up her own songs as child.
She graduated from Howard University in 1963 where she studied with Mark Fax.
She is one of the co-founders of the Society of Black Composers. 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.
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.
Moore worked as a private music teacher, from 1965-1966 taught at the Harlem School of the Arts, in 1969 at New York University and in 1971 at the Bronx Community College. In 1985, the world premiere of her opera, Frederick Douglass, took place in New York City.
Between 1988 and 1990, she sat on the music panel of the New York State Council of the Arts.