Mr. Murray is a summa cum laude graduate of CSU, Sacramento with a bachelor’s degree in bassoon and voice performance. After serving as Assistant Conductor of the February 2008 production of Porgy and Bess, Mr. Murray was appointed Principal Conductor of Townsend Opera beginning with the 2008/09 season, and has since conducted the 2008 and 2009 Opera Galas, as well as productions of Pagliacci, Amahl and the Night Visitors, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Barber of Seville, and The Merry Widow. At the conclusion of the 2009/10 season, Mr. Murray signed a three-year contract to serve as Principal Conductor of Townsend Opera through the 2012/13 season.

Since 2004, Mr. Murray has been the choir master and assistant director of the Concerts of All Hallows series. During his work with them Mr. Murray has prepared choruses for Mozart’s Requiem, Gounod’s St. Cecelia Mass, Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio, Mendelssohn’s Vom Himmel Hoch, and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. Mr. Murray has also conducted the orchestra and chorus in performances of Schubert’s Mass in Ab and Mozart’s C minor Mass. Mr. Murray has led the Music in the Mountains Festival Chorus as their director since the 2008/09 season.

While at CSUS, Mr. Murray was the principal bassoonist of the CSUS Orchestra, and in 2004 won the CSUS concerto competition and performed the Weber Bassoon Concerto with the CSUS Orchestra. In addition to his conducting duties, Mr. Murray plays in professional orchestras throughout the valley including the Napa Symphony, the Vallejo Symphony, and the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra. Mr. Murray studied conducting with Professor Leo Eylar and Dr. Donald Kendrick, and has performed often as a choral and orchestral conductor.