Artists Space

Carman Moore Improvises Personal Problems

Concert
June 29, 2021, 8pm

Join the event here

A color photograph of a figure from the chest up. Moore wears a green collared shirt and looks directly into the camera. He stands in front of a translucent glass background, in whose reflection buildings are faintly visible.
Portrait of Carman Moore. [A color photograph of a figure from the chest up. Moore wears a green collared shirt and looks directly into the camera. He stands in front of a translucent glass background, in whose reflection buildings are faintly visible.]

Artists Space presents a special virtual concert with musician Carman Moore, who composed the soundtrack for Bill Gunn's Personal Problems. Moore will revisit this legendary score, playing new improvisations of the songs and motifs from this made-for-tv drama. The performance is timed with a re-print of the Personal Problems LP, first released in February 2020 by Reading Group this summer.

Special thanks to Marianna Rosett.

Carman Moore Improvises Personal Problems. Concert Documentation. Tuesday, June 29, 2021, 8pm. Artists Space, New York. [Video documentation of multiple individuals speaking and playing music.]

Carman Moore is an Ohio-born, New York-based composer who has been called “the greatest composer, not just in New York, but in the whole world” by his friend the late Ornette Coleman. His works have been performed by the N.Y. Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center among other institutions. Moore co-founded the Society of Black Composers, has been a music critic for the Village Voice and the New York Times, is founder-conductor of the Skymusic Ensemble, and was the 2020 recipient of the Composers Now “Visionary Composer” award. His soundtrack for Personal Problems, the “experimental soap opera” directed by Bill Gunn and written by Ishmael Reed was released this year by Reading Group. Joshua Minsoo Kim and Moore talked on the phone on February 22nd to discuss his life and works, Personal Problems, Black intelligentsia in the ’80s, and more.

Program support for Artists Space is provided by The Friends of Artists Space, Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Cy Twombly Foundation, The David Teiger Foundation, The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The New York Community Trust, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Willem de Kooning Foundation, The Danielson Foundation, The Fox Aarons Foundation, Herman Goldman Foundation, The Destina Foundation, The Luce Foundation, May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, VIA Art Fund, Arison Arts Foundation, The Chicago Community Fund, The David Rockefeller Fund, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Jill and Peter Kraus Foundation, The Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation.