Patrick Murray Biography

March 15, 2023

Conductor/composer Dr. Patrick Murray is Artistic Director of Chor Amica (London, ON), Director of the University of Toronto Scarborough Concert Choir, and Associate Conductor with the Bach Children’s Chorus. Additionally, he serves as Director of Music at Church of St. John the Evangelist in Elora, ON, where he directs Canada’s premiere professional church choir. Equally committed to performance, education, and community engagement, Murray has served on choral faculty at Western University and Wilfrid Laurier University, as a teaching artist with the Ad Astra Music Festival (KS), Illinois Summer Youth Music, Oakville Choir for Children and Youth, and the Toronto Children’s Chorus, and as a community singing facilitator for the London InterCommunity Health Centre. A passionate advocate for new music, Murray has premiered over thirty new works for choir, ensemble, and chamber opera. His own compositions have been commissioned by noted ensembles in both Canada and the United States including the Carmel Bach Festival Chorale, New York Polyphony, College of the Holy Cross Chorale (MA), Metropolitan United Church Choir (Toronto), and the Summer Institute of Church Music. Murray’s academic research focuses on practices of community engagement in contemporary choral composition, and he holds degrees from University of Illinois, Yale University, and the University of Toronto.