Jazz saxophonist Micheal Murray grew up in rural County Donegal in a musical family. Both he and his brother Conor found a passion for jazz in their early teens and have been mentored since the age of 16 by MOBO Award-nominated drummer David Lyttle. In 2015 he moved to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with saxophone icon Tommy Smith where he went on to perform in many of Scotland’s jazz clubs with some of the country’s top musicians.
Since graduating in July 2019, Micheal has gone on to be the recipient of the Jazzlife Alliance award, which allowed him to study with David Lyttle, Meilana Gillard and US saxophone icon Jaleel Shaw. As well as this, this last year has seen him tour extensively with David Lyttle in Ireland and Britain, and perform in Ireland with British jazz piano legend Jason Rebello and New York legend Michael Kanan.
In 2019 Micheal also had the honour to play lead alto with the Tommy Smith Youth Orchestra All Stars at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh. The band comprised of members of the orchestra ranging all the way back in 2000 when the band began to the current band of today. In 2020/2021 he was awarded the Personal Development Grant by the Arts Council of Ireland, so he could study further with Jaleel Shaw.Recently he has also been commissioned by Jazzlife Alliance to perform and record a set of solo saxophone performances, entitled Recordings from the Field and videos that juxtapose the Irish landscape he has grown up around and been influenced by with pushing the boundaries of the saxophone through the challenging solo setting. Along with his brother Conor, they have been hailed as rising stars and the best in the new generation of Irish jazz, and have attracted praise from The Times, All About Jazz and the Irish Times.