Justin Murphy-Mancini

Justin J. Murphy-Mancini is a keyboardist and composer dedicated to exciting and enriching audiences with music from many eras. He appears regularly in concert as an organist, harpsichordist, and collaborative pianist, with a repertoire that spans the entire written history of keyboard music. His recent solo appearances include venues such as the Spreckels Organ Pavilion (San Diego, CA), Mechanics Hall (Worcester, MA), Hendricks Chapel (Syracuse University), Methuen Memorial Music Hall, and Epsilon Spires (Brattleboro, VT). Justin performs frequently as a collaborative musician, both as a basso continuo player and professional chorister, appearing with ensembles including the San Diego Pro Arte Voices, Carduus, and Willan West.

Justin is equally at home with music of the distant past as from the modern day, bringing context and enthusiasm for under-heard repertories to a broad audience. He specializes in the music of the Renaissance in Germany and England, harpsichord music of the 17 th century, and modernist French organ music, especially that of Charles Tournemire and Olivier Messiaen. Since 2011, he has premiered over a dozen new works for the organ and the harpsichord and has championed composers including Emma Lou Diemer and Eva-Maria Houben. He can be heard on recorded releases from Marginal Frequency, Another Timbre, and Mayor Tacoghost; his debut solo album, featuring a survey of American organ music played on an 1834 Joseph Alley instrument, will be released by Acis in 2025.

As a composer, Justin inhabits accessible and avant-garde domains equally, writing for both professional and amateur musicians. His music has been performed by Ensemble SurPlus and the Callithumpian Consort as well as by members of the Mivos Quartet and TAK. Much of his original output is inspired by themes and texts from the early Middle Ages, especially that of Anglo-Saxon England.

A committed educator, Justin began teaching secondary organ, composition, and harpsichord lessons as an undergraduate student. He is the inaugural Paul Fritts Endowed Chair in Organ Studies and Performance at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. At PLU, he teaches a variety of courses in addition to primary and secondary organ study; he also serves as University Organist and accompanies the Choral Union. Previous appointments include Artist Faculty in Organ at the University of Southern Maine and lecturer positions at UC San Diego. From 2023-24, he served as faculty representative of the Young Organist Collaborative (Portsmouth, NH), an organization founded to support the next generation of organists. Justin has served as Clerk of the Old West Organ Society and as a trustee of the Methuen Memorial Music Hall, where he continues to support their work as a Friend of the Hall.

In his capacity as a sacred musician, Justin has served congregations across the US for over 20 years. From 2019-24, he was Director of Church Music at the First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist, in Newburyport, MA, where he directed the Candlelight Chorale and curated the Jean C. Wilson Music Series. He has also served UU, Episcopal, Methodist, and UCC congregations in California, Ohio, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Justin began his musical studies with the piano at age four before serious study of the organ and double bass. His early mentors include Galina Gertsenzon, Cheryl Wadsworth, Lynn Lovell, Domenick Fiore, Adrienne Kim, and Nicolas Scherzinger. He earned degrees in organ performance, composition, historical keyboards, and philosophy from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Jack Mitchener, Josh Levine, Webb Wiggins, Marie-Louise Langlais, Steven Plank, and Lisa Goode Crawford. Justin holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University of California, San Diego; his principal teachers were Katharina Rosenberger, Natacha Diels, and Rand Steiger. He has also undertaken post-graduate study with Christian Lane and Margaret Irwin-Brandon.