Great Organ Music at Yale: Thomas Murray

Professor Murray has been a member of the faculty since 1981 and was appointed University organist in 1990. Successor to Charles Krigbaum and Robert Baker as the senior professor of organ, he teaches the organ literature seminar and gives instruction to graduate organ majors. His performing career has taken him to all parts of Europe and to Japan, Australia, and Argentina. He has appeared as a soloist with the Pittsburgh, Houston, Milwaukee, and New Haven symphony orchestras, the National Chamber Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra during its tour of Finland in 1996. The American Guild of Organists named him International Performer of the Year in 1986. The Royal College of Organists in England awarded him an FRCO diploma honoris causa in 2003, and in 2007 the Yale School of Music awarded him the Gustave Stoeckel Award for excellence in teaching. During his years at Yale he has at times been active as a choral conductor, and prior to joining the faculty he was organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Episcopal) in Boston. Professor Murray is principal organist and artist-in-residence at Christ Church Episcopal in New Haven, where he mentors a current ISM organ major.  B.A., Occidental College.