Olivia Murphy

After studying jazz saxophone at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Olivia has found composition her main focus, enjoying writing, arranging and conducting for various jazz and new music ensembles. As the composer for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, she arranged two sets of Amy Winehouse songs, reimagined for the 23-piece big band, which is currently in the process of the 27-date UK tour. Olivia has acted as conductor for many of these dates, including Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Derry Jazz Festival, and Oxford Town Hall. Olivia most recently has formed her own 21-piece jazz orchestra, which had its debut performance, playing all original compositions at a sold out Birmingham Symphony Hall Stage in February 2022. While staying busy with composition projects, Olivia still enjoys playing saxophone and clarinet in various settings and is releasing a new trio EP (featuring clarinet, voice and piano) of original songs on LYTE records this year. Olivia is a recipient of the Help Musician’s Peter Whittingham Award, Jazzlife Alliance Young Composer Award and the first and only two-time winner of the RBC Jazz Composition Award. Olivia has released two E.Ps - 'tomorrow songs' (soprano saxophone, voice, piano), and 'afterglow of a dream suite' (for her sextet 'paper shaped people'). She will be releasing her debut jazz orchestra EP, "Somewhere, Not So Far Away", recorded live at Birmingham's Symphony Hall later this year.