Paul Murphy, Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia is standing against an off-white backdrop, smiling for a headshot. Paul is facing forwards, looking at the camera and smiles with mouth closed. Paul has grey/white short hair and a trimmed goatee. Paul is wearing a black formal shirt and black trousers.

Paul Murphy

Paul Murphy has been a member of Birmingham Royal Ballet for 34 years since joining the Company in 1992. He was appointed Principal Conductor in 1997, then Music Director in 2024 and has been instrumental in developing exceptionally talented young ballet conductors through the Constant Lambert Conducting Fellowship.

He has conducted many of the UK’s finest ensembles including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Ulster Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata. Abroad, he has worked with such orchestras as the Bergen Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the Osaka Symphony, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, the Sofia Opera Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo in Sicily.

Paul has also been a guest conductor for the Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, Dutch National Ballet, The Australian Ballet, BalletBoyz, NDT 1, Acosta Danza, Finnish National Ballet, Sarasota Ballet and the Tokyo Ballet, with whom he conducted performances of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at La Scala, Milan in July 2019. He has been a frequent guest conductor with the National Ballet of Japan since 2008.

He has made numerous recordings for BBC Radio 3, BBC Television, Channel 4, and released CDs with the Hallé, the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

He has also recorded DVDs of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with the Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, The Tales of Beatrix Potter and Les Patineurs with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Aladdin and Sylvia with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and NHK broadcasts of Coppélia and Swan Lake and Giselle.

Paul studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Colin Metters, John Carewe, George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis. He was made an Associate (ARAM) in 1997.