Skating across the keys: CSC’s new accompanist shares worries and excitements about working in Chadron

Walk through Memorial Hall, and you’re bound to hear music. It’s usually of groups: ensembles or choirs, quartets or bands, pooling their efforts for the greater musical good. Pass office 128, however, and you’ll hear Kimberly Murphy’s single melodic strain. Fingers gliding across her piano, Murphy practices one of the many pieces she’ll perform this year at CSC. But she won’t be alone. Murphy is CSC’s new accompanist. Every music major, instrumental or vocal, performance or education-focused, needs accompaniment during their scholastic career. That’s where Murphy’s talent comes in.

I met with the new faculty member on Monday. Her office is dominated by a glossy black grand piano, above which hangs a pastel drawing of two swans, which Murphy did herself.

New to the collegiate field, Murphy has never accompanied professors or instructed college-level material, but that certainly doesn’t mean she’s ill-prepared. After the school’s former accompanist, Brooks Hafey, departed, CSC began the search for an equal musical resource. Armed with a B.A. and M.A. in piano performance from the University of Missouri, Murphy proved an excellent fit.

Murphy has studied vocal coaching and violin, in addition to her academic background in performance and accompaniment. The hardest part, she said, about accompanying is the partnership.

“It’s not like a solo, you have to follow the other person.”

Although daunting, this collaborative effort makes a great accompanist. Murphy said she was attracted to Chadron’s accompanist position because it meant performing, a pleasure she missed while working as a piano instructor in Kansas.

“That wasn’t very challenging,” Murphy said of her previous profession. Her students were beginners, and that provided few chances for Murphy to exercise her musical muscles. Now, as CSC’s sole accompanist, Murphy will play a wide and high-caliber array of music. When asked if this intimidated her, she replied,

“I will just practice, a lot.”

This gung-ho attitude is also evident in Murphy’s quick transition into the position. Just last month, the Missouri native moved from Roeland Park, KS, a sprawling suburb of Kansas City, to Chadron’s rural confines. Her husband, a former architect, and their two children, Catriona and Tara, accompanied Murphy to Chadron. Murphy isn’t phased by the sudden population drop, though. An avid hiker, Murphy has been exploring her new surroundings by foot, soaking up the scenery while the weather permits. Although Murphy admits she’ll miss metropolitan shopping and eating, her inner history-buff appreciates Chadron’s historic offerings.

The pianist divulged another unexpected hobby: ice-skating. Since her childhood in rural Missouri, Murphy has loved to ice-skate. Unfortunately, as the closest rink is a hundred miles away, the only skating Murphy will be doing is up and down the polished ivory of her keyboard. Murphy admits, the town lacks the cultural offerings of her previous home, like her favorite frequent, the Kansas City Symphony. However, she is excited to use her master’s degree to contribute to the musical culture of her new home. It’s hard to suddenly move from one’s old home and job, and to start in a new place and hope your pieces fall into place. Fortunately, as a new part of CSC’s music department, Murphy won’t be playing alone.