Dr. Joe W. Moore III is the current Assistant Professor of Percussion at Benedict College in Columbia, SC. He also served as the Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley prior to his appointment at Benedict College. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Central Florida, his Master of Music degree from the University of South Carolina, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a minor in composition from Louisiana State University. His primary mentors in percussion include Brett Dietz, Troy Davis, Kirk Gay, Scott Herring, Jim Hall, and Jeff Moore. For composition, he was mentored by Dinos Constantinides, Jay Batzner, and Brett Dietz. He actively performs with the Omojo Percussion Duo, 2×2 Percussion, Dead Resonance, and the Black Sheep Percussion Quartet. Recently, he performed at the Sugarmill Music Festival, the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, the UTRGV Marimba Festival, and the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. His compositions have been performed across the United States, including performances at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. His music can be found with C. Alan Publications, Alea Publishing and Recording, Innovative Percussion Publications, and Strikeclef Publishing, as well as the store of his own website where he self publishes man of his own manuscripts. His featured recording on this blog is entitled “Being Black”, which he is also performing. This is a five-movement multi-percussion solo that was written to memorialize the black lives that have been taken through police brutality and other senseless murders. His musical choices were based upon the details of several cases including Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, George Floyd, and many more.
Bio courtesy of joewmooreiii.net and photo courtesy of his Facebook