MARY MURPHY
Email: mary@marymurphy.ca
Web address: www.marymurphy.ca
OVERVIEW
Accomplished Singer/Songwriter/Children’s Writer/Novelist and Performer, with lifelong creative drive, having
extensive experience working with young children to expand their exposure to music and the arts. Developed
programs in drama, music, storytelling and writing to help children from kindergarten through high school expand
their imaginations, improve their self-confidence and gain understanding of other cultures. Created ‘Fairy Mar y’
persona to appeal to young children and to encourage their participation in variety of interactive programs.
Proficient in following areas:
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Award winning Children’s
Writer
Novelist
Singer/Songwriter
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Creator of Children’s
curriculum and events
Photoshop Elements 11
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Works with K-6th grades
Creator of videos for
Children’s stories
Premier Elements 11
MS Word
EXPERIENCE
WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
Comox Valley Literacy Now Program
1993 - 2013
2013
Created “Fairy Mary” event for Summer Reading and Writing Contest under the umbrella of the Vancouver
Island Regional Library System.
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Wrote original stories about Fairies, Forest creatures and human children with goal of expanding
vocabulary by story line context. Program ran every Thursday for the month of August.
Created light-hearted on-line writing contest to encourage and motivate children to write their own
stories, to be judged by panel of “forest creatures.”
Contacted local establishments to obtain awards for children, and found strong support for program,
generous donations, and strong interest from both parents and community for this and future events.
Posted videos on website to make stories available during this event.
Events were extremely popular and gained highly favorable reactions from children, parents, community
and newspapers.
Fairy Mary Events
2012 - 2013
Won Children’s literary award for original book/audio CD – ‘Away with the Fairies’ in April 2013. This book
contains seven original stories in written form (with illustrations) and one audio CD with Mary reading all the
stories and singing three songs. There is also a hidden Fairy dressing doll with extra outfit hidden behind CD,
colouring pages and vocabulary challenge for older children. This book is being used in several schools as
teaching tools.
Conducted programs with “Fairy Mary” theme in variety of venues directed at children ages four through nine.
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Created Library literacy events with goal of expanding language through stories, arts, crafts and song.
Children were encouraged to dress in fairy or forest creature costumes to enhance experience. Events
were extremely popular and gained highly favorable reactions from children, parents, community and
local newspapers.
Posted stories on website for participants as follow up to events to encourage ongoing reading and
creative efforts for participants.
Developed Children’s Page on website to include activities for children such as videos, recipes, jokes.
Presented story line ideas to further encourage children to write their own stories.
Comox Valley Literacy Now Program
2013
Created “Fairy Mary” events for younger children up to 4 years old under the umbrella of the Vancouver Island
Regional Library System. These focused on movement, stories and songs utilizing stuffed animals, whistles and
drums.
Mary Murphy’s Irish Isle, Grades K-6
2010 - 2013
Conducted programs and workshops for school assemblies in United States and Canada for grades K through 6.
Workshops in Canada included Yukon territories and BC. School Administrators and students alike, were thrilled
to dive into a new culture and learn about rhythms and dance as well as sign language and story telling.
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Created and developed 45-minute interactive presentations for these elementary students exploring
themes of Irish culture and music. Children were encouraged to participate with rhythm instruments and
were taught some Irish language and songs.
Muse with Me
1999 - 2000
Awarded five thousand dollar grant, to work in collaboration with Boys and Girls Club of America, Ventura,
California. This twice-weekly program worked with twelve “at risk” children for six months. These were children
from very challenging home environments and had to cope with poor living conditions, and drug use within their
families, resulting in poor self esteem. They were aged from seven to eleven.
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Designed program to focus on communication, problem solving and life skills through art, storytelling,
cooking, music and dance.
Completed program with successful outcomes for all twelve children.
Commendation awarded from Boys and Girls Club teachers due to the success of project.
Children’s International Arts Festival
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1999
Hired by Ventura County School District, Ventura California to provide children with classroom
workshops for performing arts.
Developed sessions focused on language, choreography, sign language songs and peaceful
communication with fellow youths.
Santa Barbara Foundation Grant
1998
Awarded grant to support Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America and Art from Scrap, Santa Barbara, California.
Goal was to teach music, story telling, theatre production, mask making and puppetry to both the Boys and Girls
Club and to the community.
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Created and organized two separate classes that were taught by artist from Art from Scrap.
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Conducted story-telling workshops and workshops on mask making, finger puppets and showbox that
focused on character development.
Organized and coached participants through performance at culmination of program, to coincide with
Summer Solstice Day Parade.
Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens
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1998
Created summer camp curriculum with outside environment theme.
Used improvisational garden props to develop story lines and demonstrated how to create choreography
using variety of musical genres.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
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Conducted summer camp program as music specialist with focus on performance. Coached children on
self-confidence on stage, and guided them on stage presentation and emoting.
Tahoe Arts Project, South Lake Tahoe, California
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Designed program for school district children from K-3 in 1996. Focus was on multi-cultural diversity in
music, storytelling and dance.
Successfully completed engagement and was invited back in 1998.
Developed and conducted program for all students from fifteen local schools ranging from K – High
School.
Integrated South Lake Tahoe Honor Choir into program, teaching them three new songs that they
performed at concert at end of program.
Hired guitarist and bass player for many classes and culmination of event was a sold out community
concert.
Roosevelt School, Santa Barbara, “The Children’s Creative Project”
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1996 – 1998
1997 – 1998
Developed and taught diversified program of music, dance, story-telling, rhythm and sign language songs
for K – 6. Emphasized student participation in order to build confidence.
Created and directed several assemblies with students for presentations to families and community.
Peabody School, Santa Barbara, “The Children’s Creative Project”
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Designed and taught two summer school classes on mask making, character design, costume making and
song development. Class culminated with performance for family, and friends.
Used multi-media to explore music, song, and story telling. Taught songs and how to use journals to
explore their writing abilities. Used a variety of techniques to help children explore their interpretation of
music, including movement and drawing.
Canolino School, Carpentaria, California “The Children’s Creative Project”
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Designed specialized programs for K-3 special needs children, to encourage and highlight individual
performance and self-expression while working together as a class.
Santa Barbara Charter School, Goleta, California
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Worked with children from K-3 for school year, to help them develop musical abilities and appreciation,
including interactive activities that culminated in presentations at end of school year.
Children’s CD
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Recorded and produced a variety of music for children, called “Mary Murphy and the Troon Sisters”.