We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christopher Murphy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve always had a passion for performing for others. When I was in college, I was surrounded by really successful musicians who were active performers. I always found myself comparing my success to theirs, as I had a super negative self-image in regards to my craft. But when I was given the opportunity to perform for a number of private events, I began to have more confidence in my abilities and stopped comparing myself to others as much. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Music Performance. As more venues opened up for live music, I was given more opportunities to play professionally. This gave me confidence that I could turn my passion for performing for others into something that I could earn part of my living doing moving forward.

Christopher, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a professional musician and public school music teacher. I got my start in education my first year of college at Victoria College working with some local High School Students. I fell in love with sharing music with younger generations. I later transferred to Texas State University, where I had some opportunities to perform professionally. I had always enjoyed performing for others, but when I saw that I could provide for myself doing it, it gave me a drive to improve and attract more opportunities for myself. In 2021, I was fortunate enough to help found the band Los Gatos 512 with Kirsten Boynt, which is where I began developing my unique on-stage persona. Through performing with this band and several others in the Central Texas area, I have been able to provide joy and musical connections to audiences ranging from small private events to large festivals!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best thing society can do to support creatives is to simply show up! Coming out to events and giving a supporting cheer is worth the world to many artists, especially musicians. I perform Latin music, most of which is meant to be danced to. There is nothing better for me than when audience members start dancing to my music. When there is an audience to consume our product, the creative ecosystem becomes more sustainable. If you have friends who are artists, go see them perform or show off their work, it will mean so much to them and will keep a healthy creative environment for all!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being a musician is that I get to share my creative process with other artists. I love writing new music or rehearsing for a performance with my bandmates, who are some of my best friends! When we get together with the goal of improving on something, our creative output expands immensely! Putting all of the pieces together and performing at a show is just a culmination of countless hours of work and collaboration that manifests into something that brings people joy, and its truly a beautiful thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://murphytrombonemusic.weebly.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/murphy.trombone?igshid+OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-murphy-511712225?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits
KT Yarbrough, Jaime Torres, Kevin Bocanegra Jr.