J. P. Murphy serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Piano Area Chair at the University of Oklahoma where he teaches applied piano, graduate piano pedagogy, and coordinates the secondary piano studies program. An active clinician and adjudicator, he frequently presents workshops and guest lectures at the state and national levels. His research on keyboard skills, inclusive teaching practices, effective classroom communication, and early-advanced teaching literature has been featured at numerous organizations, including the MTNA National Conference, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP), the National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum (GP3), and the MTNA Collegiate Piano Pedagogy Symposium. With the Frances Clark Center, he has appeared in the From the Artist Bench lecture-performance series, as a contributing instructor in the Intermediate Teacher Education virtual course, and as a panelist at the 2022 DEI Summit. His work has been published in Piano Magazine and the MTNA e-Journal.
Passionate about art song and chamber literature, Murphy actively performs as a collaborative artist. He is currently recording an album of song cycles by Ralph Vaughan Williams with baritone Leslie Flanagan. While living in New York, he served as a staff accompanist in the pre-college and college divisions of the Manhattan School of Music where he frequently collaborated in recitals and artist residencies. As a musical theater accompanist, he has performed in numerous professional productions and was a member of the music staff at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and the Gateway Playhouse. Murphy completed studies at the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria and at the Orford Music Academy in Orford, Canada.
He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma as a Graduate College Fellow and was awarded the Provost’s Certificate of Distinction in Teaching for outstanding instruction. He earned a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano at the Manhattan School of Music and completed dual majors in Piano Performance and Pedagogy and Music Education while earning his Bachelor of Music from the State University of New York at Fredonia. Murphy completed additional training at the Golandsky Institute at Princeton University and Orff-Schulwerk Level 1 at Hofstra University. He previously taught music in the New York State public schools and served on the piano faculty at the Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts.
Dr. Murphy is currently President-Elect of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association and chairs the annual Oklahoma Music Teachers Association state conference. He also serves as a member of the GP3 Steering Committee and as a member of the NCKP Teacher Education in Higher Education Committee.
- DMA - University of Oklahoma
- MM - Manhattan School of Music
- BM - SUNY Fredonia
