Pitt Professor Eric Moe Receives 2010 Aaron Copland Award

Eric Moe

Eric Moe, composer and professor of composition and theory at the University of Pittsburgh, is one only 10 composers nationwide selected for a prestigious Aaron Copland Award residency at Copland House in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., the home of the late eminent American composer that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

During Moe’s residency, from mid-April to mid-May 2011, he will work on a commissioned piece for the Brentano String Quartet and soprano Christine Brandes—setting to music the poetry of the late May Swenson. The quartet is the first-ever ensemble-in-residence at Princeton University.

The awardees represent seven states and were selected from a pool of 100 applicants. The residents will live and work, one at a time, at Copland’s rustic hilltop home in the lower Hudson Valley.

“This year’s pool of candidates was especially formidable,” said Michael Boriskin, artistic and executive director of Copland House. “We know they will make substantial contributions to the growing body of vibrant work created in Copland’s own studio.”

Moe, a renowned keyboard performer, has played a variety of works by modern composers, from Anthony Davis to Stefan Wolpe. He has recorded for the Koch, CRI, Mode, AK/Coburg, and Albany labels. His many honors include the Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a Guggenheim Fellowship; commissions from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Fromm Foundation, and Meet-the-Composer USA; and numerous other fellowships and residencies. A founding member of the San Francisco-based EARPLAY ensemble, he currently codirects the Pitt-based Music on the Edge series.

An official project of the White House’s Save America’s Treasures program, Copland House is the only composer’s home in the United States devoted to nurturing and renewing America’s rich musical heritage through a broad range of musical, educational, community, and electronic-media activities.