Photo by Reuben Radding ~ click for hi res James Moore is a composer, guitarist, and bandleader who has earned the titles of “local electric guitar hero” by Time Out New York and “model new music citizen” by The New York Times. He enjoys an active career writing, performing, and collaborating with an eclectic community of artists, drawing on influences from classical, folk, jazz, rock, and experimental music. Moore’s compositions include his electric guitar concerto Sleep is Shattered, which he premiered as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series. The Chicago Tribune praised the performance as “a highlight among highlights, not only for Moore’s sharp-eared handling of the solo guitar lines and loop pedals but his remarkable orchestral writing.” Originally developed with guitarist Marc Ribot, the work illustrates Moore’s collaborative, performer-driven compositional process and his interest in bringing together distinct musical voices. Other such projects include collaborations with mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran, haegeum virtuoso Soo Yeon Lyuh, Irish sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, and instrument builder Ellen Fullman. Performing widely as an ensemble player, Moore is a founding member and director of Dither, an electric guitar quartet specializing in contemporary composed and improvised music. The quartet has premiered hundreds of new compositions, garnering international acclaim for “sophisticated, hard-driving, and stylistically omnivorous music making” (New York Times). Moore also leads The Hands Free, a lively acoustic group with fellow performer-composers Caroline Shaw, Nathan Koci, and Eleonore Oppenheim. The ensemble’s debut album on New Amsterdam Records has been described as “an eclectic and whimsical release that allows the listener a glimpse into the joyful after-hours music making of this wildly talented quartet” (I Care If You Listen). He can also be heard playing with the avant-grunge/sloppy-math rock band Forever House (“weird fun house architecture where everything tips and distorts and unsettles”—Dusted Magazine), and in duo with violinist Andie Tanning (“virtuoso performers, fusing their disparate instrumental voices”—SF Gate). As a chamber and orchestral performer, Moore has appeared with Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish, Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can, The Crossing, Roomful of Teeth, So Percussion, the LA Phil New Music Group, and the Utah Symphony. Among the composers he has worked with are Robert Ashley, John Adams, Eve Beglarian, David Lang, Pauline Oliveros, Larry Polansky, Laurie Spiegel, and Steve Reich. Moore has also worked extensively in theater, dance, and interdisciplinary performance, including as a member of playwright Richard Maxwell's New York City Players, with whom he frequently appears onstage as a musician and actor. Notable recordings include Moore's interpretation of John Zorn’s notorious collection of solo guitar etudes The Book of Heads, released on Tzadik and accompanied by a performance film by director Stephen Taylor. Moore has also collaborated with Zorn to realize many of his improvisational “game pieces,” culminating in the album Dither plays Zorn, which was named a “Top Avant Album” of the year by Rolling Stone. Additional recording credits include Ted Hearne’s Sound From the Bench, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in music, and Mason Bates’s GRAMMY-winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, performed by the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra with Moore as steel-string guitar soloist. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Moore received his BA from UC Santa Cruz, his MM in Guitar Performance from the Yale School of Music, and his PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University. He currently resides in Brooklyn and teaches at Columbia University, where he has developed a “pop-contemporary” guitar program that bridges classical, popular, and experimental approaches to performance.