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Eric Moe (composer)

American composer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ5387115 ↗
Source-derived summary

Eric Moe (born October 24, 1954) is an American composer and pianist. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Moe was born in Durham, NC. He studied musical composition at Princeton University (BA) and at the University of California at Berkeley (MA, PhD). Currently, he is the Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh where he co-directs the Music on the Edge new music concert series. At the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, he has held visiting professorships. Moe is also active as a concert pianist, having performed works by hundreds of composers, from John Cage and Anthony Davis to Stefan Wolpe. In 2003 Moe completed a 45-minute work for mezzo-soprano and ten players, setting a text of David Foster Wallace. Moe wrote about setting Wallace for Fiction Writers Review.

Selected compositions

Spirit Mountain for five players (2010)

Strenuous Pleasures for six players (2010)

Frozen Hours Melt Melodiously Into The Past for six players (2009)

Jozaphine Freedom an entertainment on text of Denise Duhamel, for soprano, clarinet/bcl, piano/keyboard sampler (2009)

Lavished Sunlight, Frozen Hours setting of Richard Wilbur for soprano, cello and piano (2009)

Dead Cat Bounce for five players (2009)

Kick & Ride (2008) Concerto for drum set and orchestra

Grand Prismatic (2007) for clarinet and piano

Gong Tormented solo percussion (2007)

Heavenly Labials setting of Wallace Stevens for soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano (2007)

Mud Wrestling at the O.K. Corral for cello and piano (2007)

Superhero for six players (2006)

I Have Only One Itching Desire for percussion sextet (2006)

Market Forces saxophone quartet (2005)

The Legend of the Sad Triad for solo piano (2005)

Strange Exclaiming Music for violin and piano (2004)

Preamble & Dreamsong from the 4-5 a.m. REM Stage for alto flute or viola and piano (2003)

Tri-Stanfor mezzo-soprano and 10 players, text by David Foster Wallace (2003)

Pulaski Skyway Waltz solo piano (2002)

Eight Point Turn for eight players (2001)

3 Ways to Relieve Tension solo piano (2001)

Repeat Offender for seven players (2000)

Dead Elf Tugboat for flute and midi-keyboard (2000)

Siren Songs for soprano and piano; also version with ensemble and version with chamber orchestra (1998)

Fled Is That Music flute and piano (1998)

And Life Like Froth Doth Throb for viola and cello (1997)

Sonnets to Orpheus setting of Rilke for soprano, oboe, string quartet and piano (1997)

Blue Air violin and piano (1996)

Time Will Tell for five players (1996)

No Time Like the Present for orchestra (1996) for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Kicking and Screaming concerto for piano and 10 players (1994)

On the Tip of My Tongue bass clarinet and keyboard synthesizer (1993)

We Happy Few piano trio (1990)

riprap for four players (1989)

Up & At 'Em for five players (1988) commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundations

Selected recordings

Kick & Ride.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Eric Moe (composer)” as american composer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1954, 2003, 2010, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1954-10-24. The account is most persuasive where Eric, composer and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american composer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5387115. VIAF identifies the subject as 107047364. The Library of Congress control number is n89602525. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 2003, 2010 and 2009.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Eric Moe (composer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Eric Moe (composer) primary sources, Eric Moe (composer) archive and Eric research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Eric Moe (composer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.