Moore, Dorothy and Kermit, 1984 April 24

Dorothy Moore was born on June 4, 1940, in New Castle, Delaware. Her mother was a singer and Moore would make up her own songs as child. 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 graduated from Howard University in 1963 where she studied with 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 Chou Wen-Chung in New York in 1965. Moore went on to teach at the Harlem School of the Arts (1965–6), New York University (1969) and Bronx Community College, CUNY (1971).

In addition to teaching, Moore also maintained an active composition career. Moore was her own librettist for her opera, Fredrick Douglass, which was commissioned by the New York based Ebony Opera. The opera went on to be performed internationally. When setting music to text, Moore typically used poems by black Americans. Her piece, "The Weary Blues," which utilizes the 12-bar blues form, is her only instance of black music influencing her musical style.

Moore 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. In 1985, the world premiere of her opera, Fredrick 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.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Rudd_Moore / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pannu2b0Zw / http://www.bruceduffie.com/moore.html]

Kermit Moore was born in Akron, Oh, on March 11, 1929. Although primarily a cellist, Kermit Moore was also a conductor, composer, and teacher. Having begun his music training as early as six-years-old, Moore began studying with cello faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and went on to spend a summer at the Tanglewood Music festival all before simultaneously attending both Julliard and New York University for three years receiving an MA in Music.

Becoming the principal cellist at the Hartford Symphony in 1949, he became one of the few African Americans regularly performing in a symphony in the United States. In 1950, Moore moved to France to studying composition with Nadia Boulanger. He then lived in Brussels for four years conducting European orchestras and doing research. Upon his return to New York in 1961, he began to perform, teach, and conduct with such orchestra as the New York Philharmonic and the New York Festival Orchestra. Moore went on to help found the Symphony of the New World, the first racially integrated orchestra in the United States and actively welcomes minority artists. Together with his wife Dorothy Rudd Moore and others, he founded the Society of Black Composers. He was also a member and board member of the Musicians Club of New York.

Kermit and Dorothy married in 1964.

Mr. Moore died November 11, 2013 at the age of 84.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Moore / https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/arts/music/kermit-moore-musician-interested-in-the-black-experience-is-dead-at-84.html]