Moore, Kermit (11th March 1929-2nd November 2013)

Cellist, composer, conductor, and teacher who was born and raised in Akron, Ohio and matriculated from the Cleveland Institute of Music before heading to the Big Apple to attend New York University, where he graduated with honours. He went on to study at Julliard and the Paris Conservatory. A couple of notables with whom he studied were Nadia Boulanger and Georges Enescu.

Kermit took all of this formal training and fashioned an eclectic career for himself, dabbling in classical, jazz, and pop. In 1950, he won the coveted Lili Boulanger prize at Fontainebleu. He helped premiere Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “A Concert Piece in Two Parts Based on Troubled Waters and the Provocation of the Age-Old Quest for Equality, for Violoncello & Orchestra” in 1967, along with Benjamin Steinberg and the Symphony of the New World.

The list of artists and groups with whom he has recorded is much too long to list here, but includes Louis Armstrong, Roy Ayers, Backstreet Boys, James Brown, Felix Cavaliere, Judy Collins, Deodato, Bob Dylan, Robert Flack, Aretha Franklin, Philip Glass, Steve Goodman, Donny Hathaway, Billie Holiday, Whitney Houston, Janis Ian, Quincy Jones, Chaka Khan, B.B. King, Kool & The Gang, Ralph MacDonald, Madonna, Herbie Mann, Don McLean, Bette Midler, Wes Montgomery, David Newman, Roxy Music, Carly Simon, Frank Sinatra, Sister Sledge, Britney Spears, Stuff, McCoy Tyner, Frankie Valli, Luther Vandross, and Grover Washington, Jr.

He appears on the soundtracks of Koyaanisqatsi, See You in the Morning, Shaft (2000) and The Wiz.

He has played with and/or conducted a wide variety of orchestras, including the Belgium National Orchestra, the Berkeley Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Detroit Symphony, the National Radio Symphony of Paris, and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

His range of compositions displays a wide gamut of instrumental understanding, comprising works not only for cello, but orchestral pieces, a pair of string quartets, a sonata for flute, and a timpani concerto.

Some of his classical recordings include Baroque and on the Street with Eric Weissberg, Edvard Grieg’s “Aria from Aus Holberg Zeit”, Maurice Ravel’s “Pavane pour une Infante Defunte”, the allegretto from William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast”, and Vally Weigl’s “Nature Moods” and “New England Suite”.

He is also a frequent contributor to the Chamber Music Festival of the East, held annually at Bennington College in Vermont, and has served as a judge for the Olga Koussevitzky Competition for Strings, which is battled for in New York. On 16^th April 2005, Kermit contributed his time and talents to Hope College’s faculty recital, which featured his own “Music for Horn, Percussion and Strings”. A couple of months later, he was honoured on his 75^th birthday with a performance of his “De Naturae” by the North/South Chamber Orchestra at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church in New York.

On 17^th February 2008, he took part in a tribute to Langston Hughes that included an original composition by his wife, Dorothy Rudd-Moore. It was not the first time they had performed each other’s works: Kermit actually commissioned 1970’s “Dirge and Deliverance” and played cello with Zita Carno on the keys at Alice Tully Hall, as well as getting in touch with his wife’s “Moods” in a concert for the Society of Black Composers, which he co-founded. They also taught together at the Harlem School of the Arts and the Hartt School of Music, at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

Kermit has been a member of the Milt Jackson’s “Hip String Quartet”, the Ron Carter String Nonet, and his own Classical Heritage Ensemble. His forays into jazz include collaborations with William Fischer, Andrew Hill, and Joe Zawinul on the Blue Note and Rhino labels. More biographical information on Kermit Moore can be found in the book 21^st-Century Cellists.

He died in New York City in 2013 when he was 84 years old.

Frank Sinatra recordings
That’s What God Looks Like To Me (Stan Irvin/Lan O’Kun)
Reprise RPS 49233 (XNY2101S) (US 45)

Theme from “New York, New York” (Fred Ebb/John Kander)
Reprise RPS49233 (XNY 2103 S) (US 45)

Here is Ornette Coleman’s “Sadness” from his Town Hall December 1962 which Kermit performs on…

Sources:

Moore, Kermit (11th March 1929-2nd November 2013)

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