JUSTIN J. MURPHY-MANCINI is a keyboardist and composer whose artistry spans centuries of repertoire, captivating audiences where musical tradition and innovation collide. Performing regularly as an organist, harpsichordist, and collaborative pianist, Jay presents imaginative programs that juxtapose beloved masterworks with underrepresented voices, often highlighting the music of the Renaissance, 19th-century America, and 20th-century France. A committed advocate for living composers, he has premiered more than a dozen new works for organ and harpsichord since 2011 and is a noted interpreter of music by Emma Lou Diemer and Eva-Maria Houben.
 

Jay can be heard on recordings released by Marginal Frequency, Another Timbre, and Mayor Tacoghost. His debut solo album, Organ Music in New England: Cultivating a Living Tradition (Acis), surveys American organ music from the early Federal period to the present day on the historic 1834 Joseph Alley organ at the First Religious Society (Unitarian Universalist) in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Through his YouTube channel (@j_murphy-mancini), Jay has made accessible a wide array of seldom-heard works, including several recordings of music by Florence Price and Modesta Bor, reaching listeners around the world.
 

As a composer, Jay inhabits accessible and avant-garde domains equally, writing for both professional and amateur musicians. His works have been performed by Ensemble SurPlus, the Callithumpian Consort, members of the Mivos Quartet, and TAK. Much of his compositional inspiration arises from early medieval texts and themes, particularly from Anglo-Saxon England. Current projects include a large-scale organ work and new choral settings for the concert stage.
 

A dedicated pedagogue, Jay is the inaugural Paul Fritts Endowed Chair in Organ Studies and Performance at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where he also serves as University Organist and accompanist to the Choral Union. He has previously served on the faculty of the University of Southern Maine and held lectureships at the University of California, San Diego.
 

Jay’s career as a church musician spans more than two decades and includes positions in Episcopal, Methodist, United Church of Christ, and Unitarian Universalist congregations across the United States. From 2019–2024, he was Director of Church Music at the First Religious Society in Newburyport, where he directed the Candlelight Chorale and curated the Jean C. Wilson Music Series. He remains active in sacred music throughout the Puget Sound region.
 

At the age of four, Jay began piano studies before pursuing organ and double bass. His early mentors include Galina Gertsenzon, Cheryl Wadsworth, Lynn Lovell, Domenick Fiore, Adrienne Kim, and Nicolas Scherzinger. Jay later earned degrees in organ performance, composition, historical keyboards, and philosophy from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, studying with Jack Mitchener, Josh Levine, Webb Wiggins, Marie-Louise Langlais, Steven Plank, and Lisa Goode Crawford. Additionally, Jay holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where his principal teachers were Katharina Rosenberger, Natacha Diels, and Rand Steiger, and has also undertaken post-graduate study with Christian Lane and Margaret Irwin-Brandon.