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Classical Accordion

Classical Accordian Open Day | 12th October 2007

Head of Classical Accordion:
Owen Murray GRAM, Dip RAM (Copenhagen), Hon RAM

Telephone 020 7873 7381
Email accordion@ram.ac.uk

Classical Accordion

Owen Murray GRAM, Dip RAM (Copenhagen), Hon RAM

(Picture: Photo of Owen Murray with visiting professor, Friedrich Lips, in Regent’s Park alongside the Academy)

Born in the UK, studied with Mogens Ellegaard at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, graduating with the Diploma in 1982. Many recitals both in the UK and overseas. Recordings include ‘On the Wings of the Wind’. Head of Classical Accordion since 1986.

The Teachers

Owen Murray GRAM, Dip RAM (Copenhagen), Hon RAM

Visiting Professor
Friedrich Lips (Moscow)

The Course

The Academy was the first British conservatoire to introduce teaching for the classical accordion. The specialist curriculum complements other courses and includes master-classes, performance practice, accordion history, repertory, instrument maintenance and art of teaching classes.

The accordion is thoroughly integrated into the life and work of the Academy through a strong and wide-ranging chamber music programme. The response of contemporary composers to the instrument’s emergence is reflected in continuing collaborations with composition students and established composers.

Apart from many concert opportunities within the Academy, accordion students have performed at leading music festivals in the UK and abroad. In 1998 the entire accordion department made its Proms début with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2006, three students and Owen Murray were invited by Gyorgy Kurtág to perform at his 80th birthday celebration concert in Budapest. Academy accordion students have enjoyed considerable success in major competitions. Distinguished accordionists who have given concerts and master-classes at the Academy include Inaki Alberdi, Friedrich Lips, Matti Rantanen, Mie Miki, Viascheslav Semionov, Oleg Sharov and Peter Soave.

Your Audition (see p.56 for general details)

Two or three contrasting pieces should be offered. Contact the Registry for further information and a list of recommended repertoire.

Milos Milivojevic (BMus)

(Picture: Photo of Milos Milivojevic)

London has a very active contemporary music scene, and being at the Academy has given me great opportunities to get involved and perform some of the great 20th-century repertoire.

I’ve played at the Wigmore Hall and the South Bank Centre, and I believe I’m the first accordionist to perform at the University of London’s Senate House. As an accordionist you must also be an ambassador for your instrument—and I’m very happy to have worked with several Academy composers and introduced them to its inspiring sound-world.’


‘I was especially impressed by the extent to which the young players managed to get under the skin of Pärt’s scores’
The Independent, April 2000

‘Murray is an inspirational teacher’
The Times, January 2007