Profile

Get to Know Me!

1. What inspired you to pursue music?

I was inspired to pursue music when I signed up for middle school band. I chose the clarinet as my instrument. I hadn’t been involved with music before then, but the first day we rented the clarinet from the music store I played for 7 hours! It was an instant connection. I went from clarinet to saxophone and then eventually to my main instrument, bassoon. One of the reasons I’m so passionate about music education is that without that middle school band program, I may have never discovered the joy of playing a musical instrument!

2. Who were your important teachers/mentors/inspirations? What are some of your fondest memories of your musical education?

I had so many important teachers and mentors. My middle school and high school band teacher, Jim Mazzaferro, was an enormous inspiration. He taught us at an early age not only how to play the notes, but also how to go beyond the notes and to make music. I’ll never forget some of those lessons. When I attended Sac State, I studied conducting with Leo Eylar, and he instilled so many important fundamentals of conducting that I think of every day. He also is a brilliant opera conductor and taught me everything about how to conduct the operas of Mozart! After finishing school, I was fortunate to study with some of the world’s great conductors, and I have incredible memories of working with Kurt Masur, Susanna Mälkki and Cristian Măcelaru. These three conductors have had a huge influence on the way I approach music! As an Ansbacher Fellow with the Vienna Philharmonic, I was so fortunate to spend an entire summer at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic, learning so many indispensable skills that I continue to use every day as a musician. All these wonderful teachers and experiences have helped to shape who I am as a musician today and are a constant source of inspiration.

3. Do you come from a musical family?

I don’t come from a musical family, and I’m also a first-generation college student. In some ways I think this was really beneficial, because while my family was certainly supportive of my musical journey, I also had to be very self-driven. When I first picked up the clarinet in middle school, I had no idea at the time the profound impact music would have on my life. This is part of why I am so passionate about music education.

4. How did you finance your music education? How did you make your first dollar from music? How did you survive while building your career in music? When did you start calling yourself a professional musician?

I financed my music education on scholarships and grants. I also taught individual lessons and played church organ on the weekends. I think my first dollar from music would have been from teaching. I was lucky that those music-related jobs really helped me to survive while building a career. Near the end of my undergraduate degree, I was also freelancing in some of the Northern California orchestras and starting to build up my career that way. I think I really felt like a professional musician once I got my first assistant conductor jobs just after I finished my undergraduate degree.

Professional Bio

Ryan Murray is Director of Orchestra & Opera at California State University, Sacramento, as well as Artistic Director of Music in the Mountains and Principal Pops Conductor of the Modesto Symphony. He is also Music Director and Conductor for the Auburn Symphony, and the conductor for the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s premier orchestra. An award-winning opera conductor, Ryan is currently the Music Director of Opera Modesto. He has served as assistant conductor for opera productions at the Sacramento Philharmonic and is the past Music Director of Fresno Grand Opera.

Ryan is a winner of the Vienna Philharmonic’s prestigious Ansbacher Fellowship for Young Conductors and spent the summer in residence at the 2014 Salzburg Festival. Ryan was awarded second place in the 2019 American Prize for Professional Orchestral Conducting and has garnered national recognition for his dynamic, compelling performances of contemporary opera as the winner of the 2017 American Prize in Opera Conducting.

With an enthusiasm for film scores, Ryan enjoys the unique challenges of conducting movies in concert and was recently added to the Disney & ICM Approved Conductors list. Recent and upcoming performances include Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pixar Animation Studios’ Pixar in Concert, and Star Wars: A New Hope.

Ryan holds degrees, summa cum laude, in Bassoon and Voice Performance from CSU Sacramento and holds a master’s degree, with distinction, in Music Business from the Berklee College of Music. Ryan has previously attended the Cabrillo Festival’s Conductors Workshop and was one of just eight conductors worldwide to be invited to the Musiikin aika Masterclass in Finland. He previously attended the Contemporary Music Symposium led by Alan Gilbert featuring the New York Philharmonic, the Aurora Chamber Festival in Sweden, the Lucerne Festival’s Conducting Masterclass in Switzerland, and the Eastman School of Music’s Summer Conducting Institute.

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