Bio

Composer/Conductor Patrick Murray is the music director of FAWN New Opera and an intern conductor with the Grand Philharmonic Choir. A choral and new music specialist, Patrick has also served as a rehearsal conductor with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and appeared on the podium with the Toy Piano Composers Ensemble, gamUT ensemble, and Hart House Choir. In 2012, Patrick was accepted into the Atlantic Music Festival Conducting Institute to study with maestros Benjamin Shwartz and Kenneth Kiesler.

Patrick’s original music has premiered at the Norfolk Festival (Connecticut), Atlantic Music Festival (Maine), Soundstreams’ Salon 21 (Toronto), as well as in concerts by the Toy Piano Composer’s Ensemble, Grand Philharmonic Choir, Peabody Percussion Ensemble, and Canadian Men’s Chorus. In 2011, Patrick’s choral work The Echo was the winner of the DaCapo Chamber Choir’s nationwide NewWorks competition. Most recently, Patrick received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship to study at the 2012 Norfolk Festival New Music Workshop with composer Martin Bresnick.

Patrick’s passion for music and the community is evident in his educational work. As a music education consultant with the Canadian Opera Company, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and Pathways to Education Kitchener, Patrick has spearheaded several unique programs bringing arts organizations together with targeted communities. His community music work has been recognized by a 2008 Kitchener-Waterloo Arts Award, the 2008 Lyrical Lines Arts Advocacy Award, and the 2012 University of Toronto Arts Award.

Patrick received his undergraduate degree from University of Toronto, where he studied composition with Norbert Palej and Gary Kulesha, piano with Henri-Paul Sicsic, and conducting with Ivars Taurins.