Thalia Moore is a native of Washington D.C. She began her cello studies with Robert Hofmekler, and after only 5 years of study appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. After two years’ study with Christopher Rex in Philadelphia, she enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music as a scholarship student of Lynn Harrell, and received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in 1979 and 1980. While at Juilliard, she was the recipient of the Walter and Elsie Naumberg Scholarship and won first prize in the National Arts and Letters String Competition.

​

Thalia has been Associate Principal Cellist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra since 1982 and a member of the cello section in the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra since 1989. She has continued to concertize extensively, appearing as soloist at Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center), Carnegie Recital Hall, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, Herbst Theater (San Francisco), and San Francisco Legion of Honor, among others. She has performed as guest artist at the Olympic Music Festival (Seattle), the Grand Teton Music Festival, Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo (baroque cello), and the Music in the Vineyards Chamber Music Festival. In 1991, she appeared in the last episode of the TV series, Midnight Caller, and in 1993 was featured as soloist with the San Francisco Chamber Symphony under the direction of Roger Norrington. In 1996, she performed one of the first Bay Area performances of the composer’s version of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. In 1998, she was named a Cowles Visiting Artist at Grinnell College, Iowa, and in 1999 and 2001 won election to the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

​

Thalia’s interests range from early performance practice to contemporary music: in 1979, she was a founding member of the Aurora Baroque Ensemble, based in New York, and has performed many baroque and classical operas under such conductors as Nicholas McGegan, Sir Charles Mackerras, and Roy Goodman.

​

As a member of the new music groups Earplay and the Empyrean Ensemble, she has recorded works by Mario Davidovsky, Maria Niederberger, Ross Bauer, Cindy Cox, Jorge Liderman, Kurt Rohde, and David Rakowski. She has presented numerous premieres of works, including the 2005 world premiere of Laws of Motion, a concerto by Richard Festinger written especially for her.