Trumpeter James Moore leads his band at the Backstage Bar in Theater Square

James Moore

James Moore, PhD, Dean of the Faculty, Chief Academic Officer, and Associate Professor of Music, is the director of jazz ensembles at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Since 2011 he has served as the chairperson of the Department of Music at WV Wesleyan and has worked to build one of the most vibrant collegiate jazz programs in the region.

Dr. Moore is an active member of the Pittsburgh jazz community where he has been a member of RH Factor – the Roger Humphries Quintet, the 21st Century Swing Band, and leads his own quartet. In addition to his work in Pittsburgh he performs regularly with the Norman David Eleventet in Philadelphia as well as many other collaborative ventures in that city.

He has performed with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the Bob Mintzer Big Band, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Ahmad Jamal, Sheryl Bailey, Tim Warfield, and the Lars Halle Jazz Orchestra. Moore appeared on Bob Mintzer's GRAMMY nominated album For the Moment, released on the MCG Jazz label in 2012. In 2015, Moore shared the stage as a featured soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, members of the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, and NEA Jazz Master Phil Woods for the reprisal of the famous Charlie Parker with Strings material and the equally notable Clifford Brown with Strings repertoire. This was the final performance of Master Woods' career.

Moore holds an MM in Jazz Studies from the University of the Arts and Philadelphia, and is the first recipient of the PhD in Jazz Studies from the University of Pittsburgh where his advisor was Dr. Nathan T. Davis—founder of the original Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra.