Lewis Murphy
Lewis Murphy is a London-based Scottish composer whose recent output includes commissions from the Royal Opera House, the National Opera Studio, Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne, SoundFestival and The Opera Story. Born in Glasgow, Lewis began his training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before moving to London to continue his studies with Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Royal College of Music. During this time he was appointed Glyndebourne’s youngest ever Composer-in-Residence – a position he held until the end of 2017. The culmination of this residency – Belongings, created in collaboration with Laura Attridge – was shortlisted for a Young Audiences Music Award (Best Opera) in 2018 and will be performed in Minnesota in February 2020. Other recent operatic works include First Date (Sound Festival), which was nominated for a Scottish Award for New Music 2018, and Snow: Act 1 – The Three Ravens, which was praised by the press for its “subtle and delicate beauty” and “magical textures“.
Since 2018, Lewis has been part of the dynamic creative partnership, Murphy & Attridge – a commitment to the collaborative relationship that he and librettist Laura Attridge have developed over the past five years. Together they specialise in vocal music, theatre and opera, and aim to create accessible work that seeks to engage with important social issues of our time. Their most recent work – A Different Story – commissioned by the Royal Opera House to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their Youth Opera Company, will be performed on Saturday 3rd August in the newly-refurbished Linbury Theatre.
Lewis’ instrumental music has been performed in the UK and abroad by such highly-esteemed ensembles as Psappha, Red Note Ensemble, Ensemble l’Itinéraire and Orkest de Ereprijs. His first orchestral work, One, was performed by the East Renfrewshire Schools Symphony Orchestra at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in November 2015. Recent works include Theme and Variations on Ae Fond Kiss, which was performed by the Inverclyde Schools Wind Band in Greenock in June 2018, Breathing Space for Diphonon Duo (viola and accordion), performed at Wigmore Hall in February 2019, and The Voyager for the Kentigern String Quartet (performance TBC).
As an arranger, Lewis has worked with singer-songwriter, Crawford MacInally-Kier – most recently on songs from his upcoming album (release date TBC) – as well as pop groups Fatherson and Brown Bear and the Bandits. He also made string and brass arrangements for his own band, Scarlet Shift.
