Kate Moore Music

Kate Moore – Composer

Kate Moore is a composer whose music unfolds with a distinctive sense of time, texture, and atmosphere. Her work draws listeners into immersive sonic environments where repetition, gradual transformation, and luminous detail create a deeply physical listening experience. Rooted in both intuition and structural clarity, her music explores the boundaries between sound, space, and perception.

Born in Oxford and raised in Sydney, Moore has been based in Amsterdam for many years. This layered cultural background informs a practice that resists simple categorisation: her work moves fluidly between contemporary classical, experimental music, and interdisciplinary performance.

Moore is closely associated with the Dutch music scene and has collaborated extensively with leading ensembles, including Het Muziek/ ASKO|Schönberg, HiiiT/Slagwerk Den Haag. She has also worked with major orchestras such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Her work has been performed internationally, including by musicians connected to Bang on a Can in New York City, for whom she has written music.

Among her most recognised works are The Art of Levitation, a large-scale, site-sensitive composition that exemplifies her fascination with architecture, duration, and collective performance; Sacred Environment, a shimmering exploration of harmonic space and resonance; and The Dam and Fern, works that reveal her sensitivity to organic growth and delicate sonic detail. Across these pieces, Moore demonstrates a unique ability to shape sound as a living, evolving material.

A defining aspect of her practice is an interest in long-form structures and the physicality of sound. Her compositions often unfold over extended durations, inviting performers and listeners into a shared space of heightened attention. Subtle shifts in rhythm, timbre, and tuning become central expressive elements, creating music that feels at once meditative and intensely present.

Her work has been presented at major festivals and venues throughout Europe, the United States, and Australia, and she has received numerous awards and commissions in recognition of her distinctive artistic voice.

At the heart of Kate Moore’s music lies a fascination with process: how small gestures accumulate, how patterns transform, and how sound can alter the perception of time and space. The result is a body of work that invites deep listening—music that is immersive, tactile, and quietly radical.

Curriculum Vitae: Short (English)

Kate Moore is an internationally acclaimed composer. Her works are performed by Asko|Schönberg, Bang on a Can, Icebreker, Slagwerk Den Haag, Ensemble Offspring, the Australian String Quartet, The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Groot Omroepkoor, among others.

In 2022 Moore received the Gieskes-Strijbis Podiumprijs. In 2017, Kate was awarded the prestigious Dutch composition award, The Matthijs Vermeulen Prize. In 2018/ 19, she was Zielsverwanten composer in residence at The Muziekgebouw aan ‘Ij with her band Herz Ensemble; in 2018 she was composer in focus at November Music.

Kate has been a recipient of a MacDowell Colony and Yaddo fellowship, a Tanglewood composition fellowship and Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. She has attended the 2007 Bang on a Can summer institute and the 2003 Appeldoorn Young Composer meeting with De Ereprijs Orkest, where she was a prize-winner. She was also awarded the 2001 Franco-Australian Composition competition which allowed her to be composer in residence at the Paris Conservatoire.

Kate holds a doctorate from the Sydney University Conservatorium of Music, a master’s from The Royal Conservatory of The Hague and an honours degree from the Australian National University, where she received the University Medal, majoring in composition and electroacoustic composition.

Nederlands

Kate Moore is een internationaal geprezen componist. Haar werken worden onder andere uitgevoerd door Asko|Schönberg, Amsterdam Cello Octet, Bang on a Can, Icebreker, Slagwerk Den Haag, Ensemble Offspring, the Australian String Quartet, The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra en het Groot Omroepkoor.

In 2022 heeft ze de Gieskes-Strijbis Podiumsprijs gewonnen. In 2017 won Kate de prestigieuze Matthijs Vermeulenprijs voor haar compositie The Dam. In 2018/19 was zij met het door haar opgerichte Herz Ensemble in de serie ‘Zielsverwanten’ composer in residence in het Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ. In 2018 was zij festivalcomponist tijdens November Music.

Kate ontving in het verleden de MacDowell Colony and Yaddo  beurs, de Tanglewood compositie beurs en de Civitella Ranieri beurs. In 2007 nam zij deel aan de Bang on a Can zomeracademie en in 2003 was zij prijswinnaar tijdens de Young Composers Meeting van orkest De Ereprijs. In 2001 won zij de de Franco-Australian Composition Competition, waarna zij als composer in residence het conservatorium van Parijs bezocht. 

Kate behaalde haar doctoraat aan de Sydney University Conservatorium of Music, haar master aan het Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag en haar bachelor in compositie en elektroakoestische compositie de Australian National University in Canberra, waar zij ook de University Medal ontving.

Kate Moore

Oxfordshire (UK), 1979

componist, geluidskunstenaar

studie: Nationale Universiteit van Australië, Canberra;Conservatorium van Sidney (AU); Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag 

werk: akoestische en elektro-akoestische werelden van geluid; bouwt haar eigen instrumenten, geluids-sculpturen en installaties; haar muziekstukken zijn uitgevoerd in o.a. Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House en Koninklijk Concertgebouw Amsterdam; werkt sinds 2002 vanuit Nederland

prijzen: Matthijs Vermeulenprijs (2017), Gieskes Strijbis Podiumprijs (2022)