Joyce Solomon Moorman
*Joyce Solomon Moorman was born on May 11, 1946. She is a Black composer and educator.
Joyce Solomon was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. She attended segregated public schools through high school. Moorman earned a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1968 and, in 1971, a Master's Degree from Rutgers University. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in 1975. In 1982, she earned her doctorate from Columbia University. In 1976, she received a jazz study grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 1998, she won the Vienna Modern Masters Millennium Commission Competition. She taught at the Brooklyn Music School from 1982 to 1993. She has also taught at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, St. John's University, York College, LaGuardia Community College, NYC College, and Brooklyn College.
Works
Moorman's "The Soul of Nature" premiered with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1990. She also composed Race Riot, a work based on Andy Warhol's piece of the same name. It premiered in 2000 at the Pennsylvania Academy. In 2016, the Richmond County Orchestra played the world premiere of Cape Coast Castle. Cape Coast Castle describes The Door of No Return in Ghana. Her opera, Elegies for the Fallen, is based on the poetry of Rashidah Ismaili and commemorates the Soweto Massacre.
To Become a Conductor or Composer
To become a High School Teacher
