Olivia Murphy - Fateful Birds and Fledgling Stories

Olivia Murphy has quickly established herself as an innovative, creative and colourful artist working in large ensemble composition and has developed her own distinct and personal voice. Her music fuses contemporary composition and song-writing with elements of free improvisation, while always keeping story-telling at its core, hailed as “some of the most exciting large ensemble jazz emerging from the London scene today” (UK Jazz News).Since being awarded the prestigious Peter Whittingham Jazz Development Awardin 2021, Murphy has established and performed with her Jazz Orchestra across the UK, from Birmingham Symphony Hall, to Vortex Jazz Club to Cheltenham Jazz Festival. The Orchestra’s upcoming debut studio album was recorded with support from the Help Musicians’ Next Level Awardin 2024, featuring Murphy’s 4-piece Sister Suiteand her Eddie Harvey Award-winning arrangement of You Are There. In 2025, Olivia composed two large ensemble suites, Open World Suite, performed to a sold-out Pizza Express Jazz Club (Soho) in March, andSiren Cycle, commissioned by Tony Dudley-Evans for Cheltenham Jazz Festival in May. Siren Cycleis a sixty-minute, ten-movement suite, inspired by folklore and Greek myth, described as “an undoubted triumph” (The Jazz Mann). Murphy has since been funded by PRSF Women Make Music Awardto create a studio recording of the work.Murphy is a regularly commissioned composer; recently writing for Sonorite Saxophone Quartet, The University of Birmingham, and Merton Music Foundation, and she has been published by the ABRSM. 2026 collaborations include performances with Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra, Trinity Laban Jazz Ensemble and Birmingham Jazz Orchestra. Also a keen educator, Murphy became a Resident Musical Director for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in 2025, following a successful period as composer-in-residence in 2020-22. As resident MD, she leads weekly rehearsals, mentors young musicians and directs national performances.Support the show