Hannah Murphy is an active performer and teacher based in New York City. Hannah’s music has been seen and shared online by hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide.

Hannah co-founded the 501(c)3 non-profit Ex-Aequo, an organization dedicated to community building and education in the classical guitar community. In 2020, Ex-Aequo ran the first online guitar festival, just two weeks after the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown in the US. This festival was enjoyed by thousands of viewers, and provided completely free masterclasses to students from all over the world. Shortly after the festival, Ex-Aequo ran a wildly successful guitar competition, with more than 150 entrants into the first round. This competition was designed differently to promote community and solidarity among artists, and as such there was no ranking of the final prizewinners, and the four Augustine Grand Prize winners were given equal prizes and played a winner’s concert the following day.

Hannah and Ex-Aequo then started a project called “Changing the Canon",” which aimed to increase representation of Black composers in the classical guitar repertoire. The project began with commissioning 9 prominent Black American composers to write solo guitar pieces for 9 members of Ex-Aequo. For many of the composers, this was their first time being commissioned to write for guitar despite playing the guitar themselves. These compositions will be recorded in Austin, Texas in August 2021, and will be part of a visual album containing performance videos, interviews with the composers and behind the scenes footage of the making of the album. The final product will be released in the Fall of 2021.

She has been a featured performer at the Utah Classical Guitar Society, Lincoln Center, the Mid-Hudson Classical Guitar Society, and the Raritan River Music Residency Program. As an online advocate for classical guitar, she has worked with companies such as Augustine Strings, Bam Cases, Altamira Guitars, Fender Guitars, Soundbrenner Metronomes, and Soundfile nail files. Hannah has given the premieres of many new works for solo guitar, and has had pieces dedicated to her from composers such as Damien McCluskey, Peyman Shirali, Jean-Christophe Rosaz, and Fabio Salazar Orozco.

Hannah holds a Master of Music degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Mannes School of Music, where she studied with international concert artist Michael Newman. She achieved her Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Guitar Performance at Rowan University while studying with Kathleen Mayes and Joseph Mayes, famed student of Andres Segovia. She is also a passionate guitar teacher, with certification in the Suzuki Guitar Method.

Hannah is endorsed by Augustine Strings and uses the Paragon Red set. She plays a guitar made by David Pace.