Pacifica Quartet with Otis Murphy
Biography Pacifica Quartet with Otis Murphy
Pacifica Quartet
Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often-daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has gained international stature as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. The Pacifica tours extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia, performing regularly in the world’s major concert halls. Named the quartet-in-residence at Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music in March 2012, the Pacifica also served as quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009–2012) — a position previously held only by the Guarneri String Quartet — and received the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.
Formed in 1994, the Pacifica Quartet quickly won chamber music’s top competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In 2002, the ensemble was honored with Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award and the appointment to Lincoln Center’s CMS Two. In 2006, Pacifica was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, becoming only the second chamber ensemble so honored in the grant’s long history. Also in 2006, the Quartet was featured on the cover of Gramophone and heralded as one of “five new quartets you should know about,” the only American quartet to make the list. In 2009, the Quartet was named “Ensemble of the Year” by Musical America.
The Pacifica Quartet has carved a niche as the preeminent interpreter of string quartet cycles, harnessing the group’s singular focus and incredible stamina to portray each composer’s evolution, often over the course of just a few days. Having given highly acclaimed performances of the complete Elliott Carter cycle in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Houston; the Mendelssohn cycle in Napa, Australia, New York, and Pittsburgh; and the Beethoven cycle in New York, Denver, St. Paul, Chicago, Napa, and Tokyo (in an unprecedented presentation of five concerts in three days at Suntory Hall), the Quartet presented the monumental Shostakovich cycle in Chicago and New York during the 2010 –2011 season and in Montreal and London’s Wigmore Hall in the 2011–2012 season. The Quartet has been widely praised for these cycles, with critics calling the concerts “brilliant,” “astonishing,” “gripping,” and “breathtaking.”
An ardent advocate of contemporary music, the Pacifica Quartet commissions and performs many new works, including those by Keeril Makan and Shulamit Ran to be premiered during the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 seasons. In 2008, the Quartet released its Grammy Award-winning recording of Carter’s Quartets Nos. 1 and 5 on the Naxos label; the 2009 release of Quartets Nos. 2, 3, and 4 completed the two-CD set. The Pacifica’s other recordings for Cedille Records include Mendelssohn: The Complete String Quartets, Declarations: Music Between the Wars, and its acclaimed, four-volume The Soviet Experience: String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries.
Otis Murphy
Fanfare Magazine writes, “Immediately upon hearing Murphy, one is struck by the extraordinarily golden tone he produces on his instrument. Murphy’s ease, fluidity and perfect blending of registers on his instrument is extraordinary, as is his phrasing.” Chicago Tribune states, “Murphy’s playing is bright, alert . . . always with a polish and sensitivity that make the most of the music.” Indianapolis Star declares, “Murphy played with the sweetest tone imaginable.” International French saxophonist Jean-Yves Fourmeau voices, “Otis Murphy is an exceptional artist, possessing an extraordinary musical sense combined with a stunning technique.” Saxophone Journal writes, “Otis Murphy’s tone is superb, warm, supple, and intense.”
Dr. Murphy holds the position of Professor of Saxophone in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, joining the faculty at the age of 28 and becoming one of the youngest faculty members in its history. He is in great demand as an international artist, having performed in more than 25 countries worldwide across four continents. Dr. Murphy has garnered a number of awards as a performer including international prizes in Belgium’s Adolphe Sax International Saxophone Competition, France’s Jean-Marie Londeix International Saxophone Competition, and the Heida Hermanns International Woodwind Competition in the United States, and he has appeared in renowned concert halls throughout the world including New York City’s Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage and Merkin Concert Hall, Casals Hall (Tokyo); Palau de la Musica (Valencia, Spain); Muziekgebouw aan het Ij (Amsterdam); the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), others. Dr. Murphy has taught saxophone classes at prestigious international music schools and festivals including Conservatoire de Paris, Amsterdam Conservatory, Cologne Academy of Music, Hamamatsu International Wind Instrument Academy and Festival, Japan Band Clinic, Institut Franz Schubert, Kunitachi College of Music, Liceu de Barcelona, Madrid Royal Conservatory, Clinic, Musashino Academy of Music, Nagoya College of Music, Osaka College of Music, Ravenna Music Festival, London Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Sydney Conservatorium, the World Saxophone Congress, and many more. He also is a recipient of teaching awards from Indiana University including the 2019 Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, and the 2019 Indiana University New Frontiers of Creativity and Scholarship Award.
Dr. Murphy has released some fifteen recordings including four solo compact discs which have all received critical acclaim and has appeared in publications that include Saxophone Journal in the United States, Vandoren Magazine in France, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, Band Journal, Pipers and The Sax magazines, Clarinet and Saxophone Society Journal in the United Kingdom, and Dolomiten Magazine in Italy. Dr. Murphy has enjoyed a close relationship over the years with Japan having been invited annually since 2001 to present master classes and concerts and as a member of the artist/faculty of the Hamamatsu International Wind Instrument Academy and Festival since 2005. He was awarded the S & R Foundation’s Washington Award and its special Ambassador Award (which the S & R Foundation created especially for Dr. Murphy) in recognition of his contributions to Japanese and American understanding. In addition, he acts a consultant in the research and development of Yamaha saxophones.
