THOMAS MURRAY

Biography

Thomas Murray, concert organist and recording artist, is University Organist and Professor of Music at Yale University, where he has served on the faculty for 29 years and has taught many of the leading performers of a younger generation. Widely known for his interpretations of Romantic repertoire and orchestral transcriptions, his recordings are highly acclaimed. High Fidelity has credited him with “... consummate skill and artistry in treating the organ as a great orchestra” and American Record Guide said of his Elgar CD: “Murray’s performance and his handling of the immense resources of the Woolsey Hall organ are beyond superlatives ... the shape of every phrase, the use of every color ... could not be more perfect.”

Born in California in 1943, Murray studied with Clarence Mader at Occidental College. He has appeared in recitals and lectures at six national conventions of the A.G.O., which named him International Artist of the Year for 1986. As the recipient of this award he followed such luminaries as Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Guillou and Dame Gillian Weir. In 2003 he was named an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Organists in England, and in 2005 he was awarded the Gustave Stoeckel Award for excellence in teaching from the Yale University School of Music. In 2010 the Organ Historical Society conferred on him its Distinguished Service Award.

He has appeared in Japan, South America and Australia, as well as in most countries of continental Europe; his performances have included recitals for the International Congress of Organists in Cambridge (1987) and the Lahti Organ Festival in Finland, where he was soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Constantin Orbelian. As a soloist in North America he has performed with the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Houston and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, as well as the National Chamber Orchestra in Washington DC, the Yale Philharmonia and Yale Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, Prof. Murray performed at a festival inaugurating the new organ in Magdeburg Cathedral (Germany), returning to Europe in September of that year to play the inaugural recital on the new instrument at St. Johannes Church in Malmö, Sweden. Among his appearances during recent seasons were the debut recital on the renovated E.M. Skinner organ in Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, a recital for the Anglican Association of Musicians at Disney Hall in Los Angeles and for the Organ Historical Society at Severance Hall in Cleveland. In December of this year Prof Murray will play an inaugural recital on a Romantic style Klais organ in the new concert hall (Musikhuset) at Aarhus, Denmark.

Current as of August 2010