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Mr. Murray's Bio
Mr. Murray's Bio
Craig Murray, entering his 21st year of teaching at Rio Linda and 24th year of teaching overall. He is busy as a music teacher at Rio Linda High School, an arranger, and a composer. As a performer he has played trumpet and valve trombone for The Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band And Temperance Society, Ltd. and Bass for Crash The Machine. As a bassist /composer for Crash The Machine he has performed countless times throughout the area. He is a recording artist and an endorser of several industry standard instruments.
As an endorser he supports and endorses:
Aguilar - Bass amplification: AG700 amplifier, SL210 bass cabinet, SL112 bass cabinet, Octamizer pedal, ODP3 onboard active preamp, and the AG preamp pedal
Bartolini - Bass pickups and onboard preamps: Pickups in the MTD Z5 bass, active preamp and pickups in the Squier Fretless Jazz Bass
Claude Gordon - CG mouthpieces (GC Personal) for both trumpet and Flugelhorn, CG Selmer Trumpet
MTD Basses - Kingston Z5 bass and super polished strings
Craig's Brass instruments are:
Curtois - Flugelhorn in silver, CG Personal mouthpiece. New Valves by Anderson
Getzen - Valve/Slide trombone
Selmer - CG Selmer trumpet, brass, from 1982. New Valves by Anderson
Warburton Mouthpieces - 5S, KT* and 5C on the KT*
Virtuoso II - Virtuoso II trumpet made from all of Claude Gordon's notes on how to build a trumpet that truly sings in every register.
THEN
Mr. Murray finished his student teaching at Bear River High School in both Instrumental Music (under the direction of David Ahrens) and Vocal Music (under the direction of Cherry Hayes, MA). He worked with the Jazz Band, Jazz Combo - Vocal Jazz (Jazz Unlimited), the Concert Band, a guitar class, Men's Chorus, and Women's Chorus. His credentials were earned through National University.
Previous to student teaching, Mr. Murray worked with Nevada Union High School's instrumental music department for two years (under the direction of Ken Carter). He was the assistant instrumental director of jazz studies. He was charged with the "B" jazz band (those students that were brand new to jazz) and the vocal jazz ensemble.
At California State University Sacramento Mr. Murray studied music education, jazz arranging, and composition. He worked with Professor Kerry Marsh (arranging lessons for vocal and instrumental jazz). Professor Jeff Edom, learning the craft of arranging for marching bands, stand bands and writing drill for the marching band. Mr. Murray also studied with Dr. Stephen Blumberg for advanced composition, which has led him to the desire to obtain his Ph.D. in music composition.
At California State University Chico, where he earned a Masters in Arts in Music Composition in 2003, he studied with Dr. David Colson, Dr. Ray Barker, Professor Keith Seppanen, Dr. Lloyd Roby, Dr. Jeffery Gemmel and Professor Rocky Winslow. He had a private lesson, where a new major work was required for choir, with Dr. Robert Convery. Mr. Murray also was able to spend time with Dr. George Crumb when he came to CSU Chico to do a new recording of some of his works. Mr. Murray's masters project was to re-score (selected scenes) the SciFi classic Forbidden Planet (with permissions from Turner Entertainment Group).
Mr. Murray earned a BA in Liberal Studies: Music from the Union Institute & University in 1997. At the Union he studied with John Gonsalves.
Mr. Murray also attended Shasta College where he was a soloist in both instrumental and vocal jazz ensembles and was a member of " 'nightwind," an audition only vocal jazz ensemble. He also was a member of the Community college honor band and honor choir. At Brigham Young University he played in the marching band, concert band and a graduate brass choir.
Mr. Murray hails from Shasta High School, in Redding, California, where he was in the instrumental music department. He played Euphonium and Trumpet. His music classes included: Band, Marching Band, Pep Band, Jazz Band, and the orchestral pit for four musicals (Hello Dolly, Brigadoon, The King and I, and South Pacific). During his tenure at Shasta High he had the great honor to perform two world premieres: "Slava" written by Leonard Bernstein, and "Norwegian Rhapsody" written by Clare Grundman. Mr. Murray was a member of California's All State Honor Band with a solo, a Performer at the Western Division of the MENC (now National Association of Music Educators) in Anaheim, California, and toured Europe in an audition only ensemble sponsored by America's Youth in Concert. In the AYC tour he was a soloist on a world premiere of Sir William Walton's "Spitfire Prelude and Fugue," and had a solo in this piece, for wind band.
NOW
Mr. Murray is the vocal jazz director, Music Department Chair and the Visual And Performing Arts Chair at Rio Linda High School. His classes have ranged from beginning band/choir/vocal jazz, beginning/advanced guitar, beginning/intermediate/advanced piano to advanced vocal jazz to AP Music Theory. He wrote the initial curriculum for CTE's Sound Engineering, Advanced Sound Engineering, Digital Multimedia, and Advanced Digital Multimedia as well as the curriculum for the Non-Traditional Ensembles.
As part of his continuing education Mr. Murray has been studying with Jeremy Fox, DMA, Jason Alex Smith, MM, and Michele Weir for jazz studies. He has spent two summers with the trio, along with many others, in the Jason and Jeremy's Jazz Theory Bootcamp. He has arranged songs at the workshops: Umbrella In The Rain, Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat, Lay Me Down, Another Day In Paradise (Phil Collins), Stay Awake, Atom Bomb (the Strike).
Recently Hal Leonard Publishing has granted Mr. Murray permission to arrange and self publish four vocal jazz charts. Among them are Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat, Stay Awake (from Mary Poppins/Disney) and I Wanna Be Like You (from Jungle Book/Disney).
2025 - 2026 Schedule for Jazz Vocals
2025 - 2026 Schedule for Jazz Vocals
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