ABOUT THE ARISTS

JEFFREY ALLEN MURDOCK

Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock is internationally known as a conductor, clinician, and music educator. He currently serves as Director of Choral Activities, Professor of Music, and is the Founding Director of the Arkansas Center for Black Music at the University of Arkansas. He is a 2016 Connor Endowed Faculty Fellow in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, a 2018 recipient of the Golden Tusk Award, the 2019 Most Outstanding Faculty Member among all university faculty, a member of the distinguished University of Arkansas Teaching Academy and is the 2021 GRAMMY Music Educator of the Year.

Dr. Murdock appears regularly in concert, recital, and stage performances, having previously conducted the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the (Mississippi) Gulf Coast Symphony and has also performed as a soloist with the Fort Smith Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and the Southern Mississippi Opera. Dr. Murdock’s love of scholarship and performance has led him to study and perform around the world. As a music educator, he loves to invest his knowledge and experience in the next generation of young musicians through clinic opportunities with secondary choral programs, conducting honor choruses, and mentoring choral music educators. Dr. Murdock is highly sought after as a clinician in the field of choral music and education, having conducted All-State and All-Region choirs, or headlined conferences in 26 states and 7 countries. In 2013, he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the Millington Chorale in a well-received concert of diverse repertoire. The evening concert featuring the ensemble was praised for its preparation and the ensemble’s maturity of sound.

While Dr. Murdock is an accomplished classical musician, he is also a skilled Gospel musician. He has served on the conducting staff of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. and has collaborated with Gospel recording artists, including Donnie McClurkin, Richard Smallwood, Mary Mary, Marvin Winans, Marvin Sapp, Lisa Knowles, Kathy Taylor, and numerous others. Dr. Murdock holds both Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in Conducting degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Education from the University of Memphis. 

BRANDON BOYD

Dr. Brandon A. Boyd enjoys a versatile career as a conductor, in addition to appearing regularly as a composer-in-residence, collaborative pianist, and presenter for conferences, conventions, collegiate choirs, church choirs, choral symposiums, and festivals. He is the Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Missouri, where he conducts MU University Singers and Choral Union. In addition to his conducting duties at the university, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in choral conducting and choral music education.

As a proponent of choral singing to build community, his research interests include organizing choirs for the homeless, identifying the social and physical effects of choral singing on senior citizens, creating authentic field experiences for music therapy and choral music education students. For three years, Dr. Boyd co-directed three choral community partnerships in Florida: The Tallahassee Senior Choir, RAA Middle School Partnership Choir (university students and middle school singers), and the MTC Women's Prison Glee Club (university students singing with women housed in a correctional facility).

As an active composer and arranger, his music is sung regularly by ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. He is also the curator and editor of the "Brandon A. Boyd Choral Series," a choral series with Hinshaw Music Publications helping promote exciting and innovative works composed by both established and new composers and arrangers. His music also appears in the catalogs of Gentry Publications, Hinshaw Music Company, MorningStar, GIA, and Kjos Music Press. In addition, he is the Executive Choral Editor of Gentry Publications. 

He holds two degrees from Florida State University (Ph.D. in choral music education and M.M. in choral conducting) and earned a B.S. in music education (emphasis in piano) from Tennessee State University. He is a proud member of the Phi Mu Alpha Music Fraternity, Inc., Pi Kappa Lambda, American Choral Directors' Association (ACDA), National Association for Music Education (NAfME), National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), American Guild of Organists (AGO), and Chorus America. Dr. Boyd also serves as a member of the National ACDA Composition Initiative committee. 

PROGRAM (in order)

JUSTICE AND PEACE: 
LIFE TO REWARD

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS INSPIRATIONAL CHORALE
JEFFREY ALLEN MURDOCK, Conductor

TRADITIONAL SPIRITUAL My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord
arr. Moses Hogan
TRADITIONAL SPIRITUAL Daniel, Servant of the Lord
arr. Undine Smith Moore MARKELL COX & COLE BIRMINHAM, Soloists 
JEFFREY LAVALLEY Revelation 19:1
RICHARD SMALLWOOD Total Praise

NATIONAL CONCERT CHORUS
BRANDON A. BOYD, Guest Conductor
HANS BRIDGER HERUTH, Collaborative Pianist

JARRETT ROSEBOROUGH Msifuni Mungu
MARI E. VALVERDE When Thunder Comes
CEDRIC DENT I Hear the Drum
KYLE PEDERSON Does the World Say?
HANS BRIDGER HERUTH Morning (World Premiere)
TRADITIONAL SPIRITUAL Sign Me Up!
arr. Brandon A. Boyd 

NATIONAL MASTERWORK CHORUS & ORCHESTRA
JEFFREY ALLEN MURDOCK, Guest Conductor
MANNA K. JONES, Soprano
MELODY WILSON, Alto
ALBERT LEE, Tenor
EDWIN JHAMAL DAVIS, Bass
LEO DAVIS, JR., Collaborative Pianist

A. MOZART Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 

Sunday March 17th, 2024 at 8:30pm 
CARNEGIE HALL