Born in Glasgow, Lewis Murphy began his training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before moving to London to continue his studies with Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Royal College of Music. Since writing his first opera (Now) in 2014, Lewis has become a prolific composer of music for the stage, with commissions from the Royal Opera House, the National Opera Studio, Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne and Sound Festival. His first main stage opera, Belongings (2017), composed while Lewis was Young Composer-in-Residence at Glyndebourne, was shortlisted for a Young Audiences Music Award (2018) in the category of Best Opera, and received its US premiere in Minneapolis in February 2020.
Lewis’ instrumental music has been performed in the UK and abroad by such highly-esteemed ensembles as Psappha, Red Note Ensemble, Ensemble l’Itinéraire and Orkest de Ereprijs. Recent works include Variations on Ae Fond Kiss (2018), written for the Inverclyde Schools Wind Band, the accordion/viola duo Breathing Space (2019), written for the London-based Diphonon Duo, and his first string quartet, ‘The Voyager’ (2020), written for the Kentigern Quartet.
As an arranger, Lewis has worked with Scottish bands Fatherson and Scarlet Shift. He is currently working with singer-songwriter Crawford MacInally-Kier on a set of string arrangements for his upcoming EP (release date TBA).
Since 2018, Lewis has been part of the dynamic creative partnership, Murphy & Attridge – a commitment to the collaborative relationship that he and librettist Laura Attridge have developed over the past five years. Together they specialise in vocal music, theatre and opera, and aim to create accessible work that seeks to engage with important social issues of our time. Their most recent operatic work – A Different Story – commissioned by the Royal Opera House to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their Youth Opera Company, was performed in August 2019 in the newly-refurbished Linbury Theatre, and revived in December 2019 in the Clore Studio (ROH). In 2020, Murphy & Attridge have responded to the outbreak of COVID-19 with Notes From Isolation – a series of eight songs specifically crafted for a group of eight singers about their experiences of lockdown. These are available to watch on Youtube.
