Tamara Murphy : Associate Artist
Photo: @BYRAVYNA
Artist website: http://tamaramurphy.com
Tamara Murphy is an esteemed Australian bassist, composer and
bandleader with more than thirty years of performance experience.
Known for her versatility, textural awareness and adventurous
approach to improvisation, she has led acclaimed ensembles and
collaborated widely across genres, building an artistic profile
informed by her ongoing work as a performer in many settings.
Her performance and recording work spans a broad range of artists
and ensembles, including the Australian Art Orchestra, Ali
McGregor, Paul Grabowsky, Frente!, Kate Miller Heidke, Harry
James Angus, Sarah McKenzie, Nat Bartsch, Lady Rizo (US), Ben
Caplan (CA), Christine Anu, Elana Stone, Julien Wilson, Nina
Ferro, Adam Kolker (US), Bernie McGann, Joe Chindamo, Martin
Martini, ATM15 Big Band and Andrea Keller among many others. She
has performed around the world and was shortlisted for Best Jazz
Act at the 2019 National Live Music Awards.
Murphy leads three creative projects: Spirograph Studies is a
cinematic, textural quartet exploring ensemble driven
improvisation. The Tamara Murphy Trio (TMT) brings a rock
inflected sensibility to contemporary jazz. Tamara Murphy and the
Golden Tone Retrievers focuses on songwriting, drawing on pop,
rock, folk and electronic influences.
She has worked as a musical director for The Wheeler Centre Gala
(2022), Monash University's Progress Festival - Songs of Freedom
(2019), and The Brunswick Music Festival's International Women's
Day Concert, UNITY (2017).
Composition forms a central thread in Murphy's work. Her
compositions appear on recordings by artists such as Elly Hoyt,
Tony Gould, Ali McGregor and Women of Soul. In 2011 she received
the inaugural Young Elder of Jazz Commission to create Big
Creatures & Little Creatures (premiered at the 2012 Melbourne
International Jazz Festival). So far, she has released 13 albums
of original material as leader/co-leader.
Murphy's contributions to Australia's music community extend well
beyond performance. She ran the musician led organisation
Lebowski's in 2009 and served on the Melbourne Jazz Fringe
Festival committee from 2010 to 2013. During the 2020 lockdown
she created Flipped Interviews, a playful and incisive series
highlighting gendered experiences in the music industry. She also
devised and continues to coordinate Magnify Music Camp, a twice
yearly program that fosters a diverse and creative environment
for high school musicians to write, record and perform original
music.
She has previously taught at the Melbourne Conservatorium of
Music (VCA), Monash University, Melbourne Polytechnic and several
secondary schools, and currently lectures at Box Hill Institute.
Biography provided by the composer — current to June 2026
