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Murray Grainger

Murray Grainger (born 31 December 1973) is a folk musician, composer and recording engineer. He plays accordion, both piano and chromatic button key, and has worked and performed in a wide variety of musical genres. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music he started his career as a classical accordionist, collaborating with composers in the creation and development of a new repertoire for the free-bass accordion. After moving back north he moved back to his traditional roots and started to explore folk music from the UK and Europe.

Career

Born in Manchester in 1973 Grainger started studying music when he was 6 years old, learning the recorder before starting more formal tuition on the piano. At the age of 8 he also started studying the piano accordion, under the tuition of Alicia Dells. At 11 he went to the Manchester Grammar School where he continued his musical development, starting to study percussion as a third instrument. He changed accordion to learn the chromatic button free-bass accordion, studying with Professor Owen Murray.

In 1992, Grainger left school and went to study classical accordion at the Royal Academy of Music, continuing his studies with Owen Murray. He graduated in 1996 and stayed in London for a further 3 years. During this time, he worked extensively on the classical scene, performing with, among others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Almeida Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Apartment House. He was also appointed as the head of accordion studies at the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester.

In 1999 he moved back to Manchester, continuing as a classical performer, working with Scottish Ballet, the Northern Sinfonia, Lontano etc. In 2001 he was asked to teach accordion at the Fosbrooks Folk Education Trust, where he rediscovered his passion for traditional repertoire.

He met the talented accordionist Amy Thatcher during this time and they created the ‘legendary’ album Paperbird.

In 2001 he met Steáfán Hannigan and they formed the band Mahogany Gaspipes with Saskia Tomkins, Miranda Sykes and Maartin Allcock. This later developed into the Celtic Electronica band LinnTilla, where Grainger, Hannigan and Tomkins were joined by Cecilia le Poer Power, Dave Neville and Nye Parsons. The CD LinnTilla was released in 2005.

In 2005 he met multi-instrumentalist Jon Loomes and with piper Michael Beeke they formed the trio Hérétique. They released their first album in 2008, with the second, Last Mango in Paris, released in 2011.

Due to personal difficulties Grainger’s recorded output had a hiatus until 2017 when he started working with singer songwriter Shaun T Hunter. Together they created the show The Captain of the Lost Waves, quickly recording the first album, Hidden Gems Chapter One. With numerous performances around the UK they quickly found favour with the Steampunk scene, performing at all major steampunk events including Weekend at the Asylum. They released the second album, Hidden Gems Chapter Two in 2019.