EXTENDED BIOGRAPHY

During over 25 years as a full-time concert pianist, Frederick Moyer has carved out a vital and unusual career characterized by an extremely exacting approach to music-making and a wide variety of interests.

Moyer was born into an artistic family. His grandparents were all accomplished artists. On his mother's side, his grandmother was a poet; his grandfather Paul Green a Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright. On his father's side his grandmother was a singer and his grandfather David Moyer, a professor of piano at Oberlin College and student of Ferrucio Busoni and Ernst von Dohnanyi. Moyer's father, a trombonist, was a member of the Boston Symphony for 35 years, and his mother an accomplished pianist, harpsichordist and singer.

Moyer began playing the piano with his mother at the age of seven. Musically eclectic from the start, his youthful obsessions moved from the Tijuana Brass to Oscar Peterson to Sergei Rachmaninoff. In junior high and high school, he studied jazz intensively and was for a time determined to become a jazz pianist.

While still in high school, Moyer received a full scholarship to attend the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He later attended Indiana University. His major teachers were his mother, Theodore Lettvin, Eleanor Sokoloff and Menahem Pressler.

Shortly after graduation, A highly acclaimed New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall launched Moyer on a career that has flourished ever since, bringing him to 41 countries, and to such venues as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, Sydney Opera House, Windsor Castle and the Kennedy Center. Moyer has appeared as piano soloist with orchestras including the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, the St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Houston, Boston, Singapore, and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, the Buffalo, Japan, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, and the major orchestras of Australia.  Conductors under whom he has performed include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Gunther Schuller, and David Zinman.

Moyer's enthusiasm, exacting artistry, and adventurous programming have made him a favorite among audiences of all ages. In recital, his delightful commentary from the stage brings the audience into the heart of the musical experience.

Moyer's repertoire reflects an affinity for a wide variety of styles and composers. He has recorded five Mozart concerti for the Norwegian radio, and performed a series of three Rachmaninoff piano concerti with the Japan Philharmonic. His 22 recordings span virtually the entire piano repertoire from Bach to the latest composers. A champion of contemporary music, many composers have written for him including Louis Calabro, George Walker, David Kechley, Ned Rorem, Kenneth Frazelle, Gordon Green, Donal Fox and Andersen Viana.

Chamber music performances have brought him to such prestigious venues as Marlboro Music Festival and Tanglewood, in collaborations with such names as baritone Benjamin Luxon, violinist Salvatore Accardo, cellist Nancy Green and the Muir String Quartet.

Moyer is an artist with his eyes open. He has developed several computer programs to help him analyze and memorize piano works. He was the first to make a commercial recording using the Bosendorfer 290 SE Recording Piano. He has been hired by several art museums to create art-music presentations that interpret works of visual art. He often offers his services to benefit causes that he believes in. Over the past 25 years, he has taken a strong interest in a music school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and visits there regularly to teach and perform. Currently he is working on a recording of piano concerti where the orchestra is created with a computer using "sampling" techniques. He performs in Jazz Arts Trio, a jazz trio (piano, bass and drums) which plays note-for-note transcriptions of improvisations by the great jazz piano trios of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Erroll Garner and others.

Moyer started JRI Recordings in 1992 and is proud to see it supporting fellow musicians John Cheek, Babette Hierholzer, Gordon Green, Benjamin Luxon, Gisele Ben-Dor, Christine Michelle Smith and Nancy Green.

Moyer is deeply interested in education and outreach, and is well-known for his residencies of one day to three weeks which combine major performances, master classes, workshops, school performances and other activitites to promote classical music within communities.

Moyer's activities have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the United States Information Service, the Alcoa Foundation, the Astral Foundation, the Paul Green Foundation, Affiliate Artists, Concert Artists Guild, the Western States Arts Federation, the US China Arts Exchange and the Korean Cultural Foundation.