Undine Smith Moore

Composer. Educator. Pianist. Activist.

Her Story

Undine Smith Moore, often called the “Dean of Black Women Composers,” was born in Virginia and grew up surrounded by music. As the youngest child in her family, she heard her mother sing spirituals, hymns, and songs rooted in the Black church and Black home life. Those sounds shaped her. The music she heard as a child would later find its way into the compositions, classrooms, and creative legacy she built.

Undine Smith Moore studied at Fisk University and later at Juilliard, where she had opportunities to remain in New York and continue her work among great composers and musicians. But she felt called to the classroom. She felt called back to Virginia. She felt called to teach, to serve Black students, and to help shape the next generation of musicians.

She returned to Virginia State University, where she became a beloved and respected professor. Undine Smith Moore was a prolific pianist, a gifted composer, and a powerful educator. She did not simply teach music. She shaped musicians. She shaped students who would become teachers, performers, composers, conductors, and artists whose voices and work would continue far beyond her classroom.

Her standards were high because she believed her students were capable of excellence. They needed to know their music. They needed to know their notes. They needed to be prepared. She cared about the craft, but she also cared about the people becoming artists through that craft.

At Virginia State, limited resources sometimes required creativity. When materials were not available for her students, Undine Smith Moore composed what they needed. What began, in part, out of necessity became part of a much larger legacy. Her compositions went on to be performed beyond the classroom and continue to be studied and honored today.

After retiring from Virginia State University, she also taught at Virginia Union University and continued sharing her gifts as a traveling composer, lecturer, and professor. Her name and reputation went before her, yet those who knew her remembered her humility, consistency, and care.

Undine Smith Moore believed music could bring change and should bring change. She did not separate art from justice. She embraced music as a form of expression, education, activism, and spiritual power. Her compositions reflected the sounds, struggles, beauty, and hope of Black life.

She wrote music connected to the Civil Rights Movement, including a major work honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She also composed an inaugural piece for Governor L. Douglas Wilder, the first Black governor of Virginia, performed by the Virginia Union University choir.

Undine Smith Moore’s legacy lives not only in the music she composed, but in the students she taught, the artists she shaped, and the belief she carried that music could be used to build a better world.

The Brick She Built

Undine Smith Moore built the brick of voice, discipline, and purposeful artistry.

She believed that music was not only something to be performed. It was something that could speak. It could teach. It could protest. It could heal. It could move people toward change.

Her brick was also the brick of preparation. She pushed her students to study, practice, listen, and honor the gift they had been given. She understood that talent needed training, and that excellence required discipline.

Undine Smith Moore also built the brick of using what you have. When resources were limited, she composed. When students needed material, she created it. When the world needed songs that carried the weight and hope of Black experience, she wrote them.

Her life reminds us that our gifts are not just for us. Whether through music, teaching, leadership, or service, what we carry can be used to strengthen others and bring good into the world.

From Archive to Stage

Undine Smith Moore’s story presented a unique creative challenge because I had trouble finding her voice — not her musical voice, but her speaking voice. I wanted to know how she sounded, how she moved through a room, how she may have spoken to her students, and how I should present her on stage.

As part of my research, I interviewed two of her former students, and they spoke of her with deep reverence. Through their memories, I began to understand who she was as a teacher, mentor, and musical force. They helped me see the impact she made not only through her compositions, but through her presence in the classroom.

Because I could not fully access her speaking voice, I chose to tell Undine Smith Moore’s story from the perspective of a former student — someone who may not have fully understood the beauty, value, and power of who she was until later in life.

That choice gave me a way to honor the relationship between teacher and student. It also allowed the audience to see Undine Smith Moore through the eyes of someone she shaped.

On stage, her story becomes a reflection on legacy. Teachers often plant seeds they may never see fully bloom. Undine Smith Moore shaped students who went on to shape other students, perform on stages, compose new works, teach in classrooms, and carry music into places she may never have imagined.

Her life reminds me that impact is not always loud in the moment. Sometimes it sounds like scales practiced in a classroom. Sometimes it looks like a student being corrected, challenged, and encouraged. Sometimes it becomes a song, a symphony, a choir, or a life forever changed because one teacher cared enough to demand excellence.

Undine Smith Moore’s story teaches us that what we pour into others can keep singing long after we are gone.