Hugh Murphy

HUGH MURPHY is a conductor, pianist, and vocal coach known for his musical sensitivity and attention to detail. Productions and recordings under his baton have been praised in The New York Times, Opera News Magazine, Fanfare Magazine, and The American Record Guide. He has received the American Prize for Conducting, and the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Conducting of American Music for performances of Robert Ward’s “The Crucible”. Several Purchase Opera productions under his musical direction have been named “Best Opera of the Year” by the National Opera Association. His work has been featured on-line by PBS and Channel 13’s Sunday Arts Weekly Showcase. His American conducting debut was Handel’s “Semele”, the first professional production of a Handel opera ever presented in Alaska, and his Italian debut was “Gianni Schicchi” with the Orchestra Sinfonica Carlo Coccia. His repertoire includes works from the 17th to the 21st centuries.

Hugh coaches and prepares classical vocal artists for performances and recordings with the world’s leading opera companies, symphony orchestras and conductors including the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, SantFe Opera, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, the Paris Opéra, Théâtre de la Monnaie, the Berlin Staatsoper, and Bayerische Staatsoper. He has held professional coaching positions with the Santa Fe and Wildwood Opera companies. He also appears as a collaborative pianist in recital throughout the U.S. and abroad at venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, San Francisco Opera House, Queens Quay Theater, (Canada), Teatro Bramante (Italy), Castel Barcaleone, Piobbico (Italy), Frankfurt Opera House (Germany), and in Tokyo and Sendai (Japan). Mr. Murphy is currently a tenured Professor of Music and a co-creator of the award-winning Department of Classical Voice and Opera at Purchase College, State University of New York, where he conducts, coaches, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses.

This unique program is comprised of a four-year Undergraduate curriculum based on the chronological study of Italian, German and French Art Song Literature that culminates in Opera Literature class, and interlocks with corresponding Language and Diction classes. The Graduate curriculum is a chronological study of vocal performance practice and compositional aspects of Operatic Styles. The standards found in the profession are the basis for all policies regarding attendance, dress, stage deportment, rehearsal technique, vocal technique, and overall participation in the life of the department. Alumni of the program perform regularly throughout the world. With the Purchase Opera and Purchase Symphony Orchestra, Hugh has conducted recordings of The Tempest (Hoiby), The Crucible (Ward), and the world-premiere of Confession (Lucas) for Albany Records. He has also been on the faculty of the New School’s Mannes College of Music in New York City, was twice a Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music, a faculty artist at Oberlin in Italy, coach and Assistant to the Director at the Si Parla, Si Canta Vocal Institute in Urbania (PU) Italy, and adjudicated for the Lieder Competition at New York City’s Liederkranz Society and the Alfredo Silipigni Vocal Competition at the New Jersey State Opera.

With his husband, Thomas Baird, Hugh co-founded and serves as Musical Director of Apollo’s Banquet, an ensemble of dancers and musicians whose performances have been acclaimed as “sophisticated and beguiling" by the New York Times. Created to present concerts of 18th-century choreographic masterpieces with their originally-intended musical scores, the ensemble also gives master classes and residencies.