Genevieve Murphy   
 

 After studying joint honours, piano and composition for three years at Birmingham Conservatoire, Genevieve is now focusing on composition for her final year. She composes using electronics and live instruments, working with many artists and musicians. Various plans for the year include composing for BCMG, writing for her own ensembles and touring with Martin Creed's band and ballet (Work 1020).


Genevieve was born in Dundee and studied piano from early childhood. At sixteen she was accepted to study at the junior academy, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where she studied piano with Haviland Wilshire, and cello for second study. Towards the end of the first year at the RSAMD Genevieve developed an interest for composition and opted to change from cello to composition which she studied with David Fenessey and with whom she developed her instrumental writing.

Genevieve finished school in 2006 and was accepted into Birmingham Conservatoire to study Bachelor of Music, joint honours piano and composition. During her time at the conservatoire, she has explored various styles of composition. In her first year she started experimenting with electronics, and became increasingly involved with combining live instruments with electronics in her composition. This lead to her transferring to composition with technology and piano joint honours.

Genevieve has collaborated with the artist Elaine Shemilt and scientists from the Scottish Crop Research Institute by developing music derived from the DNA Genome sequence. The animations and her music have been screened in various galleries in Scotland and in the Biopolis Centre in Singapore. Genevieve subsequently completed a new composition on the same art/science theme for the V&A at Dundee: Making it Happen conference to be held at the University of Dundee. The work toured to the Scottish Crop Research Intstitute in Dundee for the Women’s Achievements in Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) Conference and has been viewed by a wide ranging audience of leading scientists, artists and academics.

Although Genevieve still composed, she decided to focus more on her study of piano performance over her third year at Birmingham Conservatoire. She enjoys collaborating with other musicians and built up her experience as an accompanist over this year. With the singer Frazer Scott, she made it to the final of the Reginald Vincent Lieder Prize and performed in the NEC for the 100th International Rotary Convention.

This academic year (2009/2010) Genevieve has taken a year out before her final year at the Conservatoire where she is having more time to focus on both piano and composition.  During this time she made it to the final of the Philip Bates Prize, an external competition, open to all composers from Britain under the age of twenty-five.

In October 2009 Genevieve worked on the ballet ‘Work 1020’ by Martin Creed, winner of the 2001 Turner Prize, co-commissioned by Sadlers Wells and Frieze music.  She rehearsed with the dancers during the development of the music and performed piano for the ballet in Sadlers Wells.  Genevieve also in this year worked with various artists, including a PhD student, Emile Shemilt and again with Elaine Shemilt. Both works were exhibited in the DCA in Dundee.

Towards the end of the year Genevieve has been playing synthesizer and piano throughout the UK in venues such as the Tate Modern and the ICA in London with Martin Creed’s band. She performed with the ballet again at The Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh festival in August and will be touring outside the UK in Paris (Palais De Tokyo) and Vancouver.

Now in her final year, Genevieve is focusing on composition for her Bmus Honours at Birmingham Conservatoire. Other projects include writing for the BCMG, collaborating with more artists, for instance working for another PhD student’s final piece, and developing her small and large ensemble writing. As a major piece of work, Genevieve plans to put on a concert that will involve her own music, installations and films on 25th March.