The flute world is mourning the loss today of legendary flute maker Jack Moore, who passed away yesterday. Jack worked for several different American flute companies in the 1970s and early 1980s before taking on his own flute making and repair shop full-time. He was a notoriously private person, and finding information to give a befitting tribute was a challenge, but I will do my best!

Moore completed flute repair training with Powell Flutes before moving to Armstrong flutes in the mid-1970s, where he pioneered their original Heritage line in Elkhart, Indiana. These flutes were made to the same quality standards as Haynes and Powell flutes at the time: fully handmade instruments with impeccable mechanisms and a glorious sound. He worked alongside Tom Green, and these instruments became a prototype of the time for the standard of handmade American flutes. Green and Moore both used the Bennett scale and eventually branched off to make their own instruments.

By the time Moore opened his own shop, his work as a flute builder was legendary; he pioneered the Murray system flute, a complicated method of flute building that take’s Boehm’s ideas in a different direction and never really caught on in the mainstream. He also helped to bring the Bennett scale into greater popularity.

I know that there are thousands of details that I have missed–and sadly, I haven’t had the chance to play one of Jack Moore’s flutes. This is now a goal of mine!