Pittsburgh local music spotlight: Eric Moe

Mike Palm TribLive Mon, Feb 9, 2026 • 07:01 AM

Eric Moe (Mara Rago)

Pittsburgh-based composer Eric Moe’s latest release, “Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years,” includes five works for solo keyboard with another track using a quintet featuring piano.

“(It’s) an amazing variety of keyboard-centered music — tiny pieces, big solo pieces, pieces with more than 12 notes per octave, with more than five players,” Moe said.

The album, released by New Focus Recordings in January, was influenced by “mountains, water, newscasts (and) corporate-speak,” according to Moe.

The title track, the final song on the album, has been described as “a meditation on clichéd job interview questions, and more broadly the tension between a vision of life put forward by the professionalized work world versus a more humanistic way of understanding life’s trajectory.”

A professor in Pitt’s music department, Moe said one of his favorite places to perform is on campus.

“I love the spontaneity of live performances, when you can push things right to the edge and take chances,” he said. “So many good venues — I like the intimacy of the Warhol Museum and City of Asylum; Bellefield Hall is an under-appreciated place to catch great music-making.”

Moe filled in TribLive on what else to know about his music:

Musician: Eric Moe (composer, pianist, keyboardist, utility percussion)

Founding story: One dark and stormy night in 1954 … No, I really got into contemporary concert music in high school, listening, playing, exploring, trying to write it. Still working on all of those..

For fans of: 21st and 20th century concert music, bebop, classic rock

Influences: Hard to think of something I’ve heard that I haven’t been influenced by…