Justin Murphy-Mancini

Justin Murphy-Mancini of Wilbraham, MA, is this year's first place winner of the LPO's Jeanne Selander Memorial Student Concerto Competition. He is an 11th grade day student at The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT.
Justin has played the piano since the age of 4, and currently studies with Galina Gertsenzon of East Longmeadow, MA. At his school, he performed a solo recital this spring, has been the pit pianist for productions of Pippin and Grand Hotel, and regularly accompanies fellow students at recitals. Justin has played at Carnegie Hall as a piano soloist performing Islamey by Mily Balakirev. In 2004, he was named to the Western District (MA) Music Festival on jazz piano, and in 2006, he took first place in the Young Artist's Piano Competition held at Westfield State College. Professionally, he has been the pit pianist for 42nd Street, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story at the Monson Summer Theater and has been hired as accompanist for several area choruses.
In addition to piano, Justin has studied organ with Cheryl Wadsworth of the Hartt School of Music for the past 7 years. At the age of 13, he was hired to be the organist and choir accompanist at the Grace Union Church in Wilbraham, where he continues to serve; he also works as a substitute organist at churches in surrounding communities. Last year he won a special award from the Charlotte Hoyt Bagnall Organ Scholarship Competition in Simsbury, CT. He was recently hired by the Unitarian Universalist Church of West Hartford for two performances of Faure's Requiem in May.
For the past 9 years, Justin has studied double bass with Domenick Fiore, also of the Hartt School. Justin placed into the Massachusetts Western District Music Festival in 2004, and he won a spot in the All State Music Festival Orchestra in 2005, 2006, and 2007, when he served as principal. Justin has played the double bass in several area orchestras, and was the pit orchestra bassist for Guys and Dolls at his school. He has participated in master classes with Edwin Barker, Jean-Claude Delache, and Pascale Delache-Feldman.
When not performing, Justin is also composing. His performance art piece, Bass Links for large Double Bass Orchestra, was performed by 45 professional and amateur bassists in Northampton in 2005. He wrote a bass arrangement that was performed in Northampton in 2004, and composed a trio for flute, clarinet and marimba that was performed at Kinhaven Music School in 2006.

At school Justin is a consistent high honors student; he has been awarded the Donald M. Joffray, Jr. Scholarship for the Arts for the past three years. In addition to playing chamber music and performing with the string orchestra, he regularly writes for The Log, the school newspaper, and serves the school as a tour guide. For the past three years, he has been a member of the As Schools Match Wits team, competing on a quiz bowl show that airs in western MA and northern CT. Justin has also been an actor in Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Inherit the Wind. His love of theater has led to his involvement in the one-act playwriting festival each year. In his spare time, he is also a member of the fencing, hiking and canoeing teams. He was recently elected president of the Tuesday Morning Music Club Junior Extension, an organization promoting young musicians in western Massachusetts.

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