Undine Smith Moore

1904 - 1989

About

Undine Smith Moore, known as the Dean of Black Women Composers, was born in Jarratt, Virginia. Her family moved to Petersburg in 1908, and at age seven, Undine began piano lessons with Lillian Allen Darden. In 1924 she received the first scholarship from the Juilliard Graduate School to study music at Fisk University, where she began composing. She graduated cum laude in 1926 and became supervisor of music in the Goldsboro, North Carolina, public schools. Smith began teaching at Virginia State College (later Virginia State University) in 1927, where she remained on the faculty until her retirement in 1972. Between 1929 and 1931 Smith commuted to New York to study for her Master of Arts degree at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Undine Smith Moore served as visiting professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and at the College of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, Minnesota, and was adjunct professor at Virginia Union University in the 1970s.

Although she composed works for piano and for other instrumental groups, Moore is best known for her choral works, including “Scenes from the Life of a Martyr”, based on the works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She received numerous awards, including the National Association of Negro Musicians Distinguished Achievement Award in 1975 and the Virginia Governor’s Award in the Arts in 1985. In 1977 Moore was named music laureate of Virginia. As a direct result of her innovative and influential teaching, many of her students have become celebrated musicians and composers.

Related Information

https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/changemakers/items/show/179

Works by Undine Smith Moore