This 12-year-old musician is one of the youngest to ever compose for the New York Philharmonic

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/New York Philharmonic)

published 13 November 2020

Grace Moore's mother bought her a piano when she was 2, and a decade later, this virtuoso is composing music to be played by the New York Philharmonic.

Moore, 12, is a seventh-grade student from Brooklyn who describes herself as being shy, but says music "gives me another way to express myself." She recently participated in the Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program, which is open to kids of all musical abilities. Her piece, "Summer," was inspired by what is happening in the world, from the quarantine to the Black Lives Matter movement, and it was selected to be performed by the Philharmonic.

Last month, members of the Philharmonic socially distanced on a New York City street to play "Summer" for the first time. Gary Padmore, director of the Very Young Composers program, told PIX 11 that his goal is to have a diverse group of kids participating. "Every child has the ability to be creative and tell their story," he said. Moore is proof of this, and she's ready to shake things up with her compositions. "I feel like music can change how people see the world around them," she said. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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