Each year, Lee University’s School of Music hosts world-renowned talent in our very own venues. One such talent that recently stepped into our recital hall is saxophonist Otis Murphy.

Born in a small Georgia town in 1972, Murphy grew up in a family of musicians. At a young age he heard a recording of Eugene Rousseau (the best saxophonist of his time) playing classic saxophone. It wasn’t until then that Murphy realized a saxophone could make such a noise.

“That sound he had was inside him, and it was what inspired me.”
Murphy took this sound very seriously; in fact when he was a child and the neighborhood children wanted to play ball outside they would sit on his porch steps waiting for him to finish even his last 10 minutes of practice.

Upon receiving his doctorate from Indiana University in 2001, Murphy was hand-picked by Rousseu himself to take his place among the faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music at the unprecedented young age of 28. He received such honors as the Prix de Perfectionnement (by a unanimous decision of the jury) from the Conservatoire National Régional de Musique in Cergy-Pontoise, France; the master of music degree with Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University, the highest honor given to a performer at this institution; and the bachelor of music education degree, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Georgia.

Mr. Murphy has traveled around the world as a soloist, clinician and teacher. He is not only a talented man of God but a humble one as well. This world class musician and his wife (an equally talented pianist) teach Sunday school to three-year olds every week that they are home. He’s appeared as an invited soloist and clinician on several occasions: the U.S. Navy Band at the 26th Navy Band International, the Saxophone Symposium in Washington, D.C., the 7th British Saxophone Congress in Wales, the New England Saxophone Symposium, among others. He has also taught at the Faenza International Saxophone Festival of Italy.

When asked what wisdom Murphy could impart to college students/aspiring musicians, he said, “Really listen to the voice inside your head, that is your heart. We have a surface level and our true selves are often beneath that surface.”

Music is the same way, he says, in that we must listen to our sound beneath the surface. When students get to be around high school/college age, they tend to stop wanting to be like a child; Murphy encouraged everyone to be a kid with their music.

“There are plenty of people who can play an instrument,” Murphy said, “But only the individual can bring to the instrument what no one else can. The inner voice of an individual cannot be duplicated.”

Murphy was overwhelmed with gratitude for the hospitality he received at Lee University. Murphy gladly accepted the invitation to give not only an exceptional concert (with a beautiful testimony of he and his wife’s faith), but also a master class. This talented musician makes music a magical experience, challenging the sound of the instrument to morph as the music needs it. Anyone who can make a saxophone sing so beautifully as to be mistaken for a vocalist has a specific “sound”. Murphy has that sound in his music and in his faith in God, and as he daily reminds himself what that sound is, we should too.