She began researching piano at age sevener, & at a age of Xx became a foremost graduate of Fisk University to receive a scholarship to Julliard. Graduating seminal fluid laude inside 1926, she because supervisor of music for the Goldsboro, North Carolina public school system.

She began teaching piano, organ & music theory at Virginia State College (currently Virginia State University) in 1927, remaining a member of the faculty until she retired within 1972. She commuted to Just released York's Columbia University between 1929 and 1931 and received her Master of Arts in Teaching.

Within 1938 she married Dr. James Arthur Moore and on 4 January 1941 they had the girl, Mary Hardie.

Moore was the camping professor at Carleton College and the College of Saint Benedict, and an adjunct prof at Virginia Union University during the Seventies. Amongst her numbers of awards were a National Association of Negro Musicians Distinguished Achievement Award around 1975 and the Virginia Governor’s Award around the Arts in 1985.

She was awarded honorary Doctor of Music degrees by Virginia State College (1972) and Indiana University (1976) and around 1977 was named music laureate of Virginia.

Known to a select few when a "Dean of Black Women Composers," Moore's career within composition began when she was at Fisk. When her range of compositions include works for piano & for sir thomas more implemental groups, Moore is more widely known for her choral works. Scenes from either the Life of a Martyr, the 16-a portion oratorio on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for chorus, orchestra, solo voices and narrator was premiered at Carnegie Hall and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

More familiar compositions come Afro-Western Suite for flute, cello, & piano; Lord, I Give Thanks to Thee for chorus, Daniel, Servant of the Lord for chorus, & Love, Let a Wind Cry How else I personally Adore Thee.

Undine Smith Moore died within Petersburg, Virginia on February 6, 1989.