John MacMurchy

I am an accomplished musician.

I have forty-plus years of teaching experience.

I am dedicated to bringing out the best in young people and promoting their passion for music.

I have a recent OPP Security Check and am happy to submit to a Vulnerable Sector Check.

October 2024

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing this letter in recommendation of John MacMurchy as a saxophone/music teacher.  I am a full-time private piano teacher (ARCT performers/teachers, RMT), the Auditions Convenor for the ORMTA Central Toronto Branch (https://www.ormtactb.com/executive), and most notably, the mother of one of John’s students.  He taught my son, Julius, from absolute beginner to RCM national gold medalist and I have been thoroughly impressed with his level of musicianship, quality of teaching, and commitment to furthering Julius’s musical abilities.

John is an exceptionally talented musician with the unique ability of being able to transfer his knowledge to young students.  My son started learning at age 7, and John tailored his approach to appeal to a youthful taste in music.  John had my son very quickly playing The Pink Panther (which was my son’s choice but was kind of cool considering John has played with Henry Mancini, among many other notable musicians) and then smoothly transitioned into RCM repertoire.  He carefully wove in pop, jazz, and other contemporary music to ensure that my son developed a well-rounded knowledge of repertoire without sacrificing the technical side of music.  The result was that my son developed a beautiful sound, and technical finesse that the Royal Conservatory of Music recognized with a gold medal for achieving the highest mark on his level 7 exam in the country.

During the pandemic, John kept his lessons engaging, and inspiring.  To quote my 18-year-old son, “John just knows so much.”  Because John has such a wealth of experience playing and knowledge of repertoire his teenage students find it easy to respect and learn from him.  

It’s not just teaching how to play the saxophone, that makes John so effective.  He also explains theory in a practical manner.  He explains scales, harmony, and how music works in the context of pieces not as just stand-alone concepts.  Because John laid such a solid foundation, my son was able to “teach himself” how to sing and how to play the harmonica and the guitar.  I feel that John helped train my son to think creatively and I credit the learning methods that he taught to Julius with my son’s current success in his first year of university studying applied math.  
John is an outstanding musician and inspiring teacher.  He would be an ideal teacher in a High School setting.

Sincerely,
Jessica Opolko

Toronto, Ontario

jessicaopolko@hotmail.com

October 2024
To whom it may concern,

John MacMurchy was my son's first serious saxophone teacher.
In 2016, Jacob was 13 years old and John started to teach him weekly. John was thorough in his punctilious attention to theory, technique, scales, and soloing Jacob ended up finishing Grade 8 saxophone at the Conservatory level with first class honours under John's tutelage but I believe my son would say that most of all, John helped elicit from him true musicality: as a talented musician and composer himself, John's ability to share the language of music with a student is inspiring and productive.
My son is now twenty-one years old, plays alto and baritone and tenor sax, thanks to John's guidance (they worked together online all during those horrible pandemic years) and remains a grateful student and fellow musician.
Please feel free to contact me with any other questions if I can be of assistance.

Sincerely,
Sydney Stoyan

Toronto, Ontario
416 728 1311