Racial equity grant supports violinist Chenoa Murphy's Lecture-Demonstration at Eisenhower High School
Celebrating the work of Black classical composers and their compositions
In collaboration with the Decatur Area Arts Council, the CFMC provided grant funding for Chenoa Murphy's presentation to the Eisenhower High School Band and Choir participants. Chenoa encouraged students to educate themselves and show interest in the more than 300 Black classical composers and musicians, both deceased and alive, who have significant bodies of work.
Chenoa Murphy was born and raised in Memphis, TN. At the age of two, Chenoa attended her first classical music concert given by Japanese violin students of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. This sparked her interest in music and she was enrolled in the Suzuki Violin Program a year later.
Demonstrating her love and enthusiasm for music, Chenoa continued to develop her natural ability and trained gift in violin and vocal studies throughout her childhood and teenage years. She attended the Overton High School of Performing Arts, summer music camps such as Aspen Music Festival, Interlochen Arts Camp, Sewanee Music Center, and the Governor’s School of Performing Arts. She has achieved both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers during these earlier and formal years of study were Yuko Honda, Pak-Chung Cheng, Katherine Wolfe, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Dorothy Delay, and Dr. Won-Bin Yim.
Chenoa resides in Springfield, IL and is a violinist in the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Peoria Symphony Orchestra, and the Decatur-Millikin Symphony Orchestra.
