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 (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 played throughout the USA, UK, Australia, Asia, and Europe on many of the world’s great stages including Carnegie Hall (Stern, Zankel, Weill), Lincoln Center (Alice Tully), Sydney Opera House, Melbourne’s Hamer Hall and Recital Centre (Murdoch, Potter), Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, Milan’s La Scala, Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall. 

The New Yorker describes Moore as “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano” while The New York Times has singled out her playing for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”. Pitchfork claims “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 12 solo albums ranging from Leoš Janáček to Philip Glass – as well as more than thirty collaborative discs (labels: Cantaloupe, Tall Poppies, Orange Mountain, Irreverence Group Music, Bandcamp, Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland, Harmonia Mundi). Her 2016 album The Stone People featuring the music of John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Frederic Rzewski, and Julia Wolfe – was selected as one of the The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 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 the 2020 Naxos Best of Indie Classical. Her 2015 collaborative Steve Reich Music for Eighteen Musicians album with Ensemble Signal made The New York Times Top Classical Albums list. Gramophone writes about Moore’s solo 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc: “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”. 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…hits the gas with controlled force” with “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters”.

For sixteen years (1992–2008) Moore was the founding pianist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars and winner of Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year award. Given a special passion for the music of our time she has worked with more than 200 composers – including Iannis Xenakis, Elliot Carter, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Paul Dresher, Meredith Monk, Frederic Rzewski, Ornette Coleman, David Lang, Jonny Greenwood, David Lang, Don Byron, Martin Bresnick, Elena Kats-Chernin, Pamela Z, Kate Moore, Paul Grabowski, Kate Neal, Gerard Brophy, Michael Smetanin, Andrew Ford, Thurston Moore, Missy Mazzoli, and Julia Wolfe.

Enjoying diverse collaborative projects and free-lancing throughout the globe, Moore has performed with a large range of musicians, artists, dance companies, and ensembles – Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, London Sinfonietta, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, and the American Composers Orchestra. She is a member of CRUX DUO, Grand Band, Ensemble Signal, Tempus Duo, TwoSense, Mammoth Trio, and the Paul Dresher Double Duo. 

Lisa Moore has performed concertos with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Fairfax (VA) Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, Thai National Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Monash Academy Orchestra, Clocked Out, Wesleyan University Orchestra with Sumarsam Gamelan, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has performed under the batons of David Robertson, Leonard Bernstein, Bradley Lubman, Brett Dean, Roger Benedict, Richard Mills, Reinbert de Leeuw, Pierre Boulez, Jorge Mester, Benjamin Northey, Angel Gil-Ordonez, Steven Schick, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Franks, Christopher Zimmerman, and Edo de Waart.

Moore’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Big Ears, Piano Spheres (LA), Banff, Crash Dublin, Vienna, Graz, Trondheim, Hamburg, Berlin, Bari Piano Festival, Taormina, Rome, Venice, Palermo, Turin, Aspen, Tanglewood, Gilmore, Chautauqua, Huddersfield, Paris d’Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Leningrad, Moscow, Lithuania, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel and Warsaw.

Moore grew up in Canberra, London and Sydney. She began piano at age 6, studying formally at the Sydney Conservatorium, University of Illinois (BM), Eastman School of Music (MM), SUNY Stonybrook (DMA), and in Paris with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. Moore enjoys artistic curation, designing programs, shaping festivals, 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 Street Theatre. Moore teaches privately and as a guest artist throughout the world, in addition to coaching and conducting the Yale University Norfolk Festival New Music Workshop. She has been a frequent guest at the Australian Academy of Music in Melbourne.

Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. Please visit  www.lisamoore.org