Katherine Murdock
Master Fellowship in Music Composition

Is a professor of music at Wichita State University.  Her first degrees are in music and theatre arts from Humboldt State and San Francisco State Universities.  Her PhD is from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with distinguished composers Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, and Warren Benson.  Murdock’s works include a wide varierty of instrumental and vocal music.  She has had numerous commission, and performances of her works have occurred in many venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.

In 1992 Murdock was awarded a Kansas Artist Fellowship.  Other awards include an honorable mention in the Harvey Gaul Competition (1986), the 1986 commission from the Kansas Music Teachers Association, the Louis Lane Composition Prize (Eastman, 1982), a special Third Prize in the Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest (1981), and a prize from the Culver City Chamber Music Series (1997).  In 2001 she was awarded the WSU College of Fine Arts Award for Excellence in Creative Activity.

Murdock has adjudicated student composition contests on the regional and national levels and has twice been a judge for the Arkansas Arts Commission in awarding composer fellowships.  She is the founder of the WSU Contemporary Music Festival, which she directed for 18 years.  Her Postcards from the Center is available on a CD issued by Crystal Records, a major label for wind music.  Her Trio Bel Canto is included on the CD Louder than Words (Red Clay Records).  She is published by Dorn Publications of Medfield, Massachusetts.

Artist Statement

Katherine Murdock believes that composers are influenced to a greater or lesser degree by their environments. Living in Kansas, in the center of the continent, has intrigued her, and many of her pieces, such as Two Visions from the Center, have had the Plains as a reference point. Since moving to Kansas in 1985, Mrudock has used being at the center of the continent as a metaphor for centering herself as a person and as an artist. The spaciousness of the prairie has caused her to open up her compositional style and let the music unfold in a more natural way. In approaching the dilemma of how to write music that is both contemporary and "accessible" she has pursued an aesthetic goal of etherealness or transcendence, while focusing each of her works around certain gestures or poetic images, usually dealing with nature or something about the human condition - even humor.

Living in a sheltered place like Kansas can be advantageous for an artist, but there are disadvantages, as well. There is a sense of isolation from colleagues, and it is often difficult to keep up with new developments in the field. With these things in mind, Murdock founded the Wichita State University Contemporary Music Festival in 1991 and directed it for 18 years. Therefore, her career in Kansas has evolved from just composing and teaching to include creating opportunities for fellow Midwest composers and for people who enjoy listening to and playing contemporary music.