Laurel Murphy is a Vancouver-born singer, improviser and teacher of vocal improvisation. Her most current projects include spontaneous choral composition (SongRise), solo performance with loopers and electronics, interdisciplinary and collaboration, teaching and an ongoing exploration of the healing properties of sound. She recently facilitated at Bobby McFerrin’s Circle Songs gathering at Omega Institute and is in the process of producing a series of healing sound recordings. A long-time student and assistant of Rhiannon (of Bobby McFerrin’s “Gimme5” and “Voicestra”), improvisation has been a constant thread that runs through all aspects of Laurel’s work.

Laurel has appeared as a jazz vocalist at a variety of venues in Vancouver. Her CD “When I Was a Bird“ (iTunes, Spotify) was released in 2015 and features jazz arrangements of well-known folk classics, as well as standards. Recorded with the talents of some of Canada’s finest musicians, “When I Was a Bird” is adventurous and evocative.

She has also appeared on a variety of other recordings, as singer and co-producer of Rhiannon’s “Flight” CD,  background vocals for children’s singer/advocate, Raffi, and spontaneous compositions with a 17 voice choir. Her current recording projects include improvised soundscapes for relaxation, 3D sound and improvised looper compositions.

Laurel’s love of interdisciplinary work has led her to collaborate with many singers, dancers and poets. Her  performance project “Blank Space” was a monthly ‘open studio’ concept that invited audience members to witness improvised vocal explorations, spontaneous collaboration with artists of other disciplines and included audience participation.

Laurel has worked intensively with Rhiannon since 1992, as a student and assistant at regular workshops in Canada and the US. In 2008 she was a “co-pilot” at Rhiannon’s inaugural  “All the Way In” improvisation program for singers and then returned as a participant in 2017. She has facilitated at numerous events and festivals, including Bobby McFerrin’s Circle Song School at Omega in 2018 and 2019. Laurel is devoted to the ongoing study and practise of improvisation. It is a passion, a life path and a spiritual discipline.

In 1995 and 1999, Laurel produced two pivotal events in Vancouver for New Year’s eve, sharing the stage with Rhiannon and 6 other conductors. “SongRise” was inspired by Bobby McFerrin’s circle singing concept and featured a 5-hour continuous improvised choral creation. The two events brought together a combined total of 400 singers and 2000 audience members in a celebration of spontaneous voice and launched the SongRise Choir which has continued through the decades. Laurel and Rhiannon were 2 of 4 women featured in the documentary “Sing!” in 2000. Laurel continues to lead circle singing events and the SongRise Improv Choir in Vancouver. She adapted the form for online improvisation and music-making during the pandemic.

Daughter of musical parents who first met in a church choir, Laurel began singing at a young age. She grew up listening to everything from Joni Mitchell to Puccini, Led Zepellin to Nat King Cole and Glenn Miller. In 1992, after several years of voice study with Gillian Hunt, ARCT, she met Rhiannon, a founding member of Bobby McFerrin’s cutting-edge a cappella group “Voicestra” and was introduced to the wild world of vocal improvisation. Exposure to this approach altered Laurel’s relationship to music and inspired her to delve deeper into the art of improvisation, as well as to complete the Jazz and Contemporary Music program at VCC.

Laurel has been influenced by her studies with other masters of a variety of disciplines: Bobby McFerrin (improvised voice), Ruth Zaporah (movement/sound/narrative), Margie Gillis (movement), Natalie Goldberg (writing), Pat Moffit-Cook (Vedic chant), Stewart Cubley (painting) and Richard Armstrong (voice) and . In 2020 she completed Levels 1, 2 and 3 of Jeanie LoVetri’s  “Somatic Voiceworks” program for teachers of voice, and “Soul Ingredients” with Dr. Trineice Robinson-Martin.