‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’

Barbara Hill Moore performed as Bess in “Porgy and Bess” at Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera in 1989 opposite Donnie Ray Albert as Porgy.

National Opera Association recognizes Barbara Hill Moore

By Kurt-Alexander Zeller, International President, Mu Chi, Atlanta Alumni | president@muphiepsilon.org

The National Opera Association (NOA) capped its 67th National Conference held in January by honoring Mu Phi Epsilon ACME member Barbara Hill Moore (Mu Chi) with its “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award. The award, instituted in 1995, recognizes the extraordinary contributions of African American artists to the world of opera and classical singing. Past recipients have included singers Grace Bumbry, Simon Estes, Reri Grist, Jessye Norman, George Shirley and Shirley Verrett; composers H. Leslie Adams, Anthony Davis and Robert Owens; conductor Willie Anthony Waters; costume designer Paul Tazewell; and musicologist Eileen Southern, among many other luminaries.

In presenting its award to Hill Moore, the NOA cited her “illustrious career as an artist/teacher for more than five decades,” during which she has graced opera stages and concert platforms on both sides of the Atlantic while she was at the same time training and mentoring several generations of singers and teachers of singing. Unlike many singers, who often begin to teach only as their performance careers start to wind down, soprano Hill Moore always prioritized what she calls “her first love,” teaching, while also continually practicing what she preached and maintaining an active calendar of performances at the highest level.

That this strategy has served to inspire and motivate her students I can affirm from experience — Mrs. Hill Moore was my voice professor when I was an undergraduate double major in music and theatre at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she has taught since 1974 and is now senior associate dean for faculty and Meadows Foundation Distinguished Professor of Voice at SMU Meadows School of the Arts. She was also the faculty advisor of the Mu Chi chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon in those days, and clearly there was another kind of inspiration at work on me there!

Virtually every semester, she didn’t just tell her voice students about how to be a skilled soloist in oratorio and orchestra literature, how to portray an opera character, how to learn and champion new music or how a superlative recitalist can draw lines that encompass Bach, Brahms, Burleigh, Britten and Brubeck and won’t leave anyone out — instead, she showed us how it’s done. Eventually, her singing career included over 50 performances as Jenny in Kurt Weill’s “Threepenny Opera” in Berlin and Cologne; appearances throughout Europe and North America in “Porgy and Bess” as both Bess and Serena (including playing Serena in the opera’s 50th anniversary performances in Charleston, South Carolina, where the opera is set); and numerous premieres and performances of American music at European music festivals, notably the premieres of five song cycles on the poetry of African American poets Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes written especially for her by composer Simon Sargon.

When I started teaching, I wondered how on earth she managed to find the time and energy to prepare all those performances — but still, whenever I think there’s no possible way to do everything on my planner, I see in my mind’s eye that familiar raised eyebrow that always meant, “Are you quite sure that’s your best effort?” And if there’s one thing Hill Moore has done throughout her teaching career, it is to make sure that her students know she wants both the best from them and the best for them.

As one of her former students, John Holiday (an international countertenor perhaps best known for his appearances in season 19 of NBC’s “The Voice”), has noted, “There is nothing greater than having somebody believe in you,” and Hill Moore’s ability to be at once tough and demanding as well as nurturing and empathetic is a primary ingredient in her success. She has been a tireless advocate for young classical singers, whatever their background and experience may be. Holiday, speaking with journalist Catherine Womack for SMU’s “MPrint” in 2019, testified to the inspiration Hill Moore, whom he affectionately calls “Prof,” has provided many singers of color.

“I went to Meadows for Barbara Hill Moore,” Holiday said. “There was something about the fact that Prof was an African American woman at a predominantly white institution. Seeing a face that looked like mine was a wonderful thing for me because it meant that she understood me, she understood my background and where I was coming from.”

Since 2000, Hill Moore has traveled to Africa numerous times to teach and coach students there and, with the help of the Bruce R. Foote Foundation, has brought many of those students to study in the United States and launch careers. The results speak for themselves: Her former students have performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera and throughout the country at the opera companies in St. Louis, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Santa Fe and Fort Worth, as well as internationally at La Scala, Paris Opera, Berlin Opera, Salzburg Opera and Cape Town Opera.

The NOA’s celebration of Hill Moore included a plenary session where she shared a wealth of inspiring and often wryly humorous stories about her experiences and insights but she kept coming back to one theme — love. “If you really love the art form of music, and you love the students you’re helping to grow in it, how can you not love what you’re doing and want to keep doing it?” she seemed to be saying, in a perfect explication of Mu Phi Epsilon’s ideals of Music, Friendship and Harmony. With such an emphasis on love, it wasn’t surprising that she offered a significant amount of the credit for her success to her family, many of whom — including husband Le, daughter Leah, and son-in-law Gary — were present for the ceremony. As she was being applauded by the entire assembly of the NOA, Mrs. Moore turned the equation on its head and asked if all those present who had studied with her or with one of her students would please stand, and a surprisingly large number of people got to their feet — including me and the seven students from Clayton State University I had brought along to perform in the session immediately preceding (when Hill Moore delightedly had greeted them as “the grand-students!”) — while she applauded them.

That Mrs. Hill Moore continues to inspire the next generation of singers is clear from the reaction of the students present. Mezzo-soprano Akosua Adwini-Poku, president of the Delta Psi chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon at Clayton State University, said, “Meeting Barbara Hill Moore at the NOA conference this year completely changed my trajectory as a musician. Before knowing who she was, I saw her walking toward me in the hallway. She was so elegant and beautiful, but familiar in a way that I could not place at the time. I was delighted to learn that the woman who had captivated me so was actually the former teacher of my current music drama workshop professor, connecting us as a musical family of sorts. Hearing her speak shifted my perspective on what was possible for me, as a very particular sort of Black woman and vocalist, and I made the decision that day to continue my music journey on to graduate school.”

Mu Phi Epsilon is proud that the National Opera Association has recognized Barbara Hill Moore with the “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award and celebrates her achievement in guiding so many musicians on “the path that leads upward toward the stars.”

Barbara Hill Moore