Lisa Moore – piano
New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. Named “la leggenda” by La Repubblica in Italy, her performances combine lyricism and virtuosity with expressive and emotional power – whether in the delivery of the simplest song, a solo recital, a concerto, or a fiendish chamber score. Given a special passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. She has performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres, having worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. Moore has performed throughout the USA, UK, Europe, Australia, and Asia on the world’s great stages – Milan’s La Scala, Vienna’s Musikverein, Sydney Opera House (Concert Hall, Utzon Room), New York’s Carnegie Hall (Stern, Zankel, Weill) and Alice Tully Hall, Melbourne’s Hamer Hall and Recital Center (Murdoch, Potter), Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, and London’s Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall.
Moore’s playing has been singled out by The New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”. Pitchfork writes “She’s the best kind of contemporary classical musician, one so fearsomely game that she inspires composers to offer her their most wildly unplayable ideas”.
Moore has released more than forty commercial albums, of which twelve are for solo piano in music ranging from Leoš Janáček to Philip Glass (on labels: Cantaloupe Music, Orange Mountain Music, Irreverence Group Music, Bandcamp, Tall Poppies). Gramophone writes of her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc (Orange Mountain Music) “what becomes abundantly clear from listening to almost any bar on this recording is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music, one which has been allowed to evolve and refine over a number of years”. Her 2016 disc The Stone People (Cantaloupe) – featuring the music of John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Frederic Rzewski, and Julia Wolfe was selected as one of The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 list and as a Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017. Moore’s recording of Ishi’s Song by Martin Bresnick (on The Stone People) was ranked no.4 in Naxos’ Best of Indie Classical 2020. Moore has recorded over thirty collaborative ensemble discs (labels: Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland, Harmonia Mundi, ABC Classic). Her Steve Reich Music for Eighteen Musicians (Harmonia Mundi) with Ensemble Signal made The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2015 list. In June 2022, Moore released her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – no place to go but around – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked the album is “meticulous…clever…and hits the gas with controlled force” with “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters”.
Moore has performed and collaborated with a diverse collection of musicians, artists, ensembles and dance companies – Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, Giovanni Sollima, London Sinfonietta, New York City Ballet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Steve Reich Ensemble, Paul Dresher Double Duo, Grand Band, Crux Duo, Mammoth Trio, Dean-Moore-Dean Trio, TwoSense, So Percussion, Don Byron Adventurers Orchestra, Ensemble Signal, Le Train Bleu, Third Coast Percussion, Da Capo Chamber Players, Eighth Blackbird, American Composers Orchestra, Mabou Mines Theater, ExhAust, Howl, Eliot Feld Dance, Susan Marshall Dance, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Sequitur, Music at the Anthology, St. Lukes Orchestra, Australia Ensemble, Westchester Philharmonic, New York League of Composers ISCM, Alpha Centauri Ensemble, Terra Australis, and John Jasperse Dance Company.
Moore’s festival guest appearances include Holland, Lincoln Center, Big Ears, Irving S. Gilmore, Chautauqua, Schleswig-Holstein, BBC Proms, Israel, Warsaw, Uzbekistan, Musica Ficta Lithuania, Prague Spring, Istanbul, Athens, Brussels, Nantes, Rome, Bari Piano Festival, Taormina, Barbican, Southbank’s Meltdown, Dublin’s Crash, Graz, Vienna, Huddersfield, Scotia, Paris d’Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Turin, Palermo, Venice, Bari, Barcelona, Heidelberg, Berlin, Perugia, Tanglewood, Mendocino, FENAM Sacramento, Arts and Ideas New Haven, Piano Spheres, Atlantic Music Festival, Sundance Institute, Houston Da Camera, Jacob’s Pillow, Aspen, Atlantic Music, Norfolk, June in Buffalo, Sandpoint, Saratoga, Victoriaville, Ojai, Other Minds, Sonic Boom, BAM Next Wave, Ecstatic Music, Bang on a Can Marathons, Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend, Bargemusic, Keys to the Future, Del Mar Composers Symposium, Kettlecorn New Music, MassMoca, Healing The Divide CSUFullerton, Mizzou, Music 10 Blonay, Adelaide, Perth, Queensland, Canberra International Music, Sydney Festival, Sydney Olympic Arts, Sydney Spring, Sydney Mostly Mozart, Sydney Big Ideas, Sydney Extended Play, Tyalgum Music, Brisbane Biennale, Melbourne Metropolis, and the Darwin International Festival.
After winning the silver medal in the 1981 Rockefeller-Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition, Moore moved to New York City in 1985. In 1992 she won the Australian Music Center Sounds Australian award ‘best performance of an Australian work” for her ‘live’ performance of Stroke by composer Michael Smetanin. From 1992–2008 Moore was the founding pianist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars – New York’s electro-acoustic sextet and winner of the Musical America 2005 Ensemble of the Year Award. They toured the world together and won the 2015 Musical America Ensemble of the Year Award.
Moore has worked with hundreds of composers – including John Adams, Martin Bresnick, Gerard Brophy, Don Byron, Elliott Carter, Ornette Coleman, Mario Davidovsky, Brett Dean, Andrew Ford, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Jonny Greenwood, Elena Kats-Chernin, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Thurston Moore, Meredith Monk, Kate Neal, George Perle, Shulamit Ran, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, Peter Sculthorpe, Michael Smetanin, Giovanni Sollima, Joan Tower, Julia Wolfe, Iannis Xenakis, Du Yun, Evan Ziporyn, and Pamela Z.
As a concerto soloist Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, Canberra Symphony, Thai National Orchestra, Monash Academy Orchestra, Wesleyan University Orchestra with Sumarsam Gamelan, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Clocked Out, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has performed under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Roger Benedict, Brett Dean, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Franks, Reinbert de Leeuw, Bradley Lubman, Jorge Mester, Richard Mills, Benjamin Northey, Angel Gil-Ordonez, David Robertson, Steven Schick, and Edo de Waart.
New chamber projects inspire Moore’s creativity. They include Crux Duo with the virtuoso Australian clarinetist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, Mammoth Trio with violinist Elly Toyoda and cellist Ashley Bathgate, Grand Band (America’s only piano sextet), TwoSense – a commissioning cello-piano duo (with Ashley Bathgate) dedicated to expanding the chamber music repertoire, and Handwork: Goldberg Variations – a piano duo project with Sonya Lifschitz.
In addition to performance, Moore enjoys curating, program development, shaping new artistic ventures, and mentoring amateur and emerging professional musicians. She produced Australia’s Canberra International Music Festival 2008 Sounds Alive series, importing artists from around the world for 10 days of events at the versatile arts precinct Street Theatre. Moore has made guest teaching and mentorship appearances at conservatories and residency programs around the world – including the Banff Centre (Canada), Royal Academy of Music (London), Eastman School of Music, Bang on a Can Summer Institute, the Sydney and Queensland Conservatoriums, Australian Youth Orchestra National Music Camp, and the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. From 2007–2016 she taught piano at Wesleyan University (CT). Moore coaches and conducts the Yale University Norfolk Chamber Music Festival New Music Workshop.
Born in Canberra and raised in both Australia and London (1971–1973), Moore studied piano at the Sydney Conservatorium for 4 years from 1976–80 before transferring to the USA to complete her three music degrees. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois (BM), Eastman School of Music (MM), and SUNY Stonybrook (DMA). With an Alliance Française scholarship Moore spent a year (1982–83) in Paris studying with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen before settling in New York City in 1985. Her past teachers include Gilbert Kalish, David Burge, William Heiles, Yvonne Loriod, Benjamin Kaplan, Sonya Hanke, Alan Jenkins, Wilma McKeown, and Larry Sitsky.
Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. www.lisamoore.org