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Karen Murphy
Dr. Karen Murphy

Instructor & Dept Accompanist
Music, Collaborative Pianist

kmurphy@colled.msstate.edu
(662) 325-6641
Music Building B, Room 105

  • D. M. A. University of Minnesota (MN)
  • M. M. Arizona State University (AZ)
  • B. M. University of Indiana (IN)

Pianist Karen Murphy joined the faculty at MSU in August 2007. Dr. Murphy is an active collaborative pianist and has performed with singers, instrumentalists and choirs in more than 20 states, across Canada, and through France and Spain including venues such as the National Cathedral, the Chautauqua Institute, and the Crystal Cathedral. Starting piano at the age of four with her father as her first teacher, she now holds the B.M. degree in piano from Indiana University, the M.M. degree in Vocal Accompanying/Coaching from Arizona State University and the D.M.A. in Collaborative Piano from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Murphy holds a Colleague degree with the American Guild of Organists, and is a Permanent Certified Member of Music Teacher National Association where she has served at the state and local levels in Arizona. She was the national recipient of the MTNA/Piano Technicians Guild Continuing Education Grant in 1997. Her teachers have included Alphonso Montecino (a student of Claudio Arrau), Eckart Sellheim, Margo Garrett, and Timothy Lovelace. She performed in master classes with Dalton Baldwin, Alan Smith, Merry Peckham, Elizabeth Adkins, Stephen Kates, David Teje, Eugene Rousseau, Colin Carr, and Pedro de Alcantara. She has served as an adjudicator for competitions and festivals in Arizona and Mississippi. Her many collaborative performances include the Copland Centennial Celebration at the Fleisher Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Finnish Consulate sponsored recital for Minnesota Orchestra's newly appointed conductor Osmo Vänska's Debut Reception in Minneapolis, several recordings with the Phoenix Boys Choir, the Southwest premier of Ellwood Derr's song-cycle Six Songs of Sundry Sorts, and most recently she organized an interdisciplinary collaborative performance, "The Poetry of Sylvia Plath in Song" where she premiered Lori Laitman's song-cycle The Blood Jet. Laitman praised Dr. Murphy's performance commenting "her playing is extremely sensitive and musical."

Being what some might call a creative pragmatist, Karen Murphy's philosophy of life-and-learning is an integral part of her performance, teaching and research: to teach is to perform; to research is to teach; to perform is to teach - the optimum paradigm. Her penchant for teaching extends from the young child to the college student and beyond. To kindle appreciation, foster learning, and be a servant of excellence is the driving force behind her professional and educational endeavors.