‘Moore displays an eloquence and nobility that one might have thought impossible except by the human voice,’ effused BBC Music Magazine. Indeed, his sensitivity of expression, command of technique and versatility has made Peter Moore one of the most exciting and well-respected exponents of the trombone today.
Born in Belfast and brought up in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, Moore attended Chetham’s School of Music. He came to international attention in 2008 when, aged 12, he became the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician, kickstarting a solo career that continues to go from strength to strength. A busy schedule has since seen him perform with some of the Europe’s leading orchestras, including the BBC, London and Lucerne Symphony orchestras, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra. He has also given recitals at some of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals: Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Cologne Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, London’s Barbican Centre and Wigmore Hall, the Spoleto Festival USA, Vienna’s Musikverein and Zurich’s Tonhalle, to name a few. Meanwhile tours have taken him as far as Australasia, China, Japan, South America and South Korea, and from 2015 to 2017 he was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.
Moore’s solo repertoire stretches from the early Baroque via Romantic lieder transcriptions to contemporary works. Also a proud exponent of new music, he has premiered trombone works written for him by Francisco Coll (Chanson et Bagatelle, 2016), Roxanna Panufnik (When You Appear, 2018) and Dani Howard (Trombone Concerto, 2021). In 2018 he also gave the UK premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Trombone Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Recent solo highlights include performances in October of Takemitsu’s Fantasma Cantos II, given with Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO in both London and Japan. This summer he also made his BBC Proms debut – the first trombone soloist at the festival for nearly 20 years – performing George Walker’s Trombone Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The performance was widely praised: ‘There are very few players with the charismatic presence and variety in their sound … who can hold interest through long phrases as Moore always does,’ wrote The Arts Desk. The Times noted Moore’s ‘hot lyricism’, while the Telegraph admired how he ‘married the elegance of a ballroom dancer with the lyrical tenderness of a violinist’.
Moore’s debut album Life Force was released in June 2018. Accompanied by James Baillieu, the record features a selection of lieder arranged for trombone and piano including Fauré’s Après une rêve, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei and Brahms’s Vier ernste Gesänge, as well as works originally written for trombone, such as Arthur Pryor’s Thoughts of Love and Friedebald Gräfe’s Trombone Concerto. The album earned a five- star review from BBC Music Magazine, while Gramophone praised Moore’s ‘genuine sympathy’ and ‘long, carefully phrased lines’.
As well as a soloist, Moore has been a member of the LSO since 2014, first as Co-Principal Trombone and today as Principal Trombone. Upon joining he was the orchestra’s youngest ever player. He now combines the role with duties as Professor of Trombone at the Royal Academy of Music.
Peter Moore is a Getzen International Artist and performs on the Getzen 4147IB.
