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, bringing in influences from classical, folk, jazz, rock, and experimental music. His concerto for electric guitar and orchestra, Sleep is Shattered, which Moore premiered as composer and soloist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series, was praised by the Chicago Tribune 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.” In this piece–originally written for the influential guitarist Marc Ribot–as in many of his projects, Moore enjoys bringing together unique entities and developing a collective language. Moore is a founding member and director of Dither, an electric guitar quartet specializing in contemporary composed and improvised music. The quartet has performed around the world and presented hundreds of new compositions, garnering international acclaim for “sophisticated, hard-driving, and stylistically omnivorous music making.” (NY Times) Performing on resonator guitar and banjo, Moore also leads the The Hands Free, a lively acoustic group with fellow performer-composers Caroline Shaw, Nathan Koci, and Eleonore Oppenheim. The Hands Free’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). Moore can also be found 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 compatriot Andie Tanning. (“virtuoso performers, fusing their disparate instrumental voices” - SF Gate). Moore's first solo recording, a new interpretation of John Zorn's notorious collection of guitar etudes The Book of Heads, was released on Tzadik in 2015, accompanied with a performance film by director Stephen Taylor. He worked closely with Zorn to develop these strange and idiosyncratic works, which require an arsenal of extended techniques involving balloons, children’s toys, and common household items. Moore has also worked with Zorn to develop many of his improvisational "game pieces," culminating in the release of Dither plays Zorn, which was dubbed a "top avant album" of the year by Rolling Stone. Other recording highlights include Ted Hearne’s Sound From the Bench, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in music, and Mason Bates’s GRAMMY-winning opera recording of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, performed by the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra with Moore as steel-string guitar soloist. As a chamber and orchestral player, Moore has performed with Dawn Upshaw & Gilbert Kalish, Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can, The Crossing, Roomful of Teeth, So Percussion, The LA Phil New Music Group, Utah Symphony, Wet Ink, and Clogs. As a sideman, he has performed with vocalists Alicia Hall Moran, Toshi Reagon, and Rhiannon Giddens, and played with members of Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, Wilco, and The National. Composers he has worked with include Robert Ashley, John Adams, Eve Beglarian, Pauline Oliveros, Larry Polansky, Laurie Spiegel, and Steve Reich. Moore has also collaborated on an array of theater, dance, and multimedia projects. He has worked extensively with playwright Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players, appearing onstage as musician, singer, actor, and music arranger for the international tours of Neutral Hero and The Evening. Other productions he has toured with include David Lang and Susan Marshall’s electrified dance work PLAY/PAUSE; Object Collection’s It’s All True, a maximalist opera based on the live archives of Fugazi; and Bryce Dessner’s Triptych, a multimedia meditation on the works of Robert Mapplethorpe. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Moore received his BA in Music from UC Santa Cruz, his MM in Guitar Performance from Yale University, and his PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University. He is currently on the guitar faculty at Columbia University.