Alumni join music school faculty

The Jacobs School of Music brought them to IU, her voice drew him in and the reds and oranges of autumn became the backdrop to a love story made in music.

Now, after 20 years of marriage and professional experience in the musical world, Kevin Murphy and Heidi Grant Murphy are back in Bloomington where their love for music, and each other, began.

The duo will bring its professional experience to IU this fall. Kevin Murphy will serve as a professor of practice and Heidi Grant Murphy will be an adjunct professor of practice in the same institution where they met.

He is a pianist and vocal coach, and she is a world-renowned soprano.

“These are people who are coming directly from the professional world to us,” Voice Department Chairwoman Mary Ann Hart said.

Kevin Murphy will serve as the head vocal coach for the Jacobs operas, where he will polish the singers and their performances and help the students with foreign languages, Hart said.

He earned his bachelor of arts in Piano from Jacobs and master of fine arts in piano accompaniment from the Curtis Institute.

Kevin Murphy’s most recent professional position was with the New York City Opera, where he had served as director of music administration since September 2008. He also assumed the position of director of the vocal program at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute in August.

“We want to help those in the Jacobs School make the transition from the student world to the professional world,” he said.

Heidi Grant Murphy began her vocal studies at Western Washington University and continued at IU. However, her graduate studies were interrupted when she was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was recruited by Maestro James Levine to participate in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Her husband joined her at the Metropolitan from 1993 to 2006 as assistant conductor. She has had an ongoing relationship with the Metropolitan for 20 years and will continue to work with them while she teaches a graduate opera workshop and Italian diction at IU.

“It’s quite a statement about our school that so many of our students have become so prominent in the profession,” Jacobs School Dean Gwyn Richards said.

The Murphys said they feel honored to join the Jacobs faculty.

“The school already has a talented faculty. We just hope we can add to it,” Heidi said. “Bloomington has always been a special place for us — there is great art, it is full of color and the people here are wonderful.”

Kevin, Heidi and their four children will move into a brand-new house in Bloomington on Wednesday, the couple’s 20th anniversary.

“We’ve made roots here,” he said. “We plan to stay a while.”