Ben Moore

American

Summary

The music of Ben Moore has been performed by many leading singers, soprano Deborah Voigt, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, tenors Jerry Hadley and Robert White, and four time Tony winner Audra McDonald. Voigt premiered four of Moore’s songs and reprised his encore piece "Wagner Roles” in her Carnegie Hall recital debut. In September 2005 EMI released Voigt’s first recital CD, All My Heart, which includes eight of Moore’s songs. Opera News wrote: "Eight songs by Ben Moore from the centerpiece of the disc, and their easy tunefulness and effective settings offer Voigt plenty of emotional range…the romantic sweep and dark urgency of Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘I am in need of music,’ the gently lyrical ‘In the dark pine-wood’ and the richly internalized imagery of Moore’s restrained setting of Keats’ ‘Darling I listen’…a heartfelt and richly communicative recital.” Moore’s association with Voigt also includes a tribute to Montserrat Caballé commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

Biography

The music of Ben Moore has been performed by many leading singers, soprano Deborah Voigt, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, tenors Jerry Hadley and Robert White, and four time Tony winner Audra McDonald. Voigt premiered four of Moore’s songs and reprised his encore piece "Wagner Roles” in her Carnegie Hall recital debut. In September 2005 EMI released Voigt’s first recital CD, All My Heart, which includes eight of Moore’s songs. Opera News wrote: "Eight songs by Ben Moore from the centerpiece of the disc, and their easy tunefulness and effective settings offer Voigt plenty of emotional range…the romantic sweep and dark urgency of Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘I am in need of music,’ the gently lyrical ‘In the dark pine-wood’ and the richly internalized imagery of Moore’s restrained setting of Keats’ ‘Darling I listen’…a heartfelt and richly communicative recital.” Moore’s association with Voigt also includes a tribute to Montserrat Caballé commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild.Ben Moore’s music spans many styles genres, from text settings of great poets to comic material for cabaret and concert stages, many to his own lyrics. Robert White has performed Moore’s setting of the Yeats poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree” at numerous venues across the country and on international radio. In 2005 the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the ASCAP Foundation/ Charles Kingsfor Fun commissioned the song cycle So Free Am I. Set to the poetry of women authors, it reflects the experience of women across centuries and cultures. Among several commissions from the Metropolitan Opera is his duet "We Love the Opera,” which was featured on their radio broadcast on New Year’s Day, 2005, as well as three songs for Met managing director Joseph Volpe’s Farewell Gala in 2006.

Special comic material for opera singers includes "Sexy Lady” for Susan Graham, as well as "Wagner Roles” for Deborah Voigt. "Sexy Lady,” which was Gramophone magazine called "gloriously funny,” is featured on the Susan Graham at Carnegie Hall, released by Warner Classics. In The New York Times review of Miss Voigt’s Lincoln Center recital in 2002, of "Warner Roles” critic Allan Kozinn called it "the clear highlight…a brilliant comic song.” In 1999 Jerry Hadley commissioned the chamber musical Henry and Company, a four-character memory piece with a text by Barry Kleinbort set in a small town America.

Born on January 2, 1960, in Syracuse, New York, Moore grew up in Clinton, New York and Graduated from Hamilton College. With and MFA from The Parsons School of Design, he also pursues a career as a painter.

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