Shonagh Murray is a Glasgow-based writer, composer, musical director and singing teacher. Originally from Larkhall, she is passionate about making theatre that rediscovers history in ways that are unexpected, impactful, and heartfelt.
Murray studied Applied Music at the University of Strathclyde, specialising in contemporary, jazz, and musical theatre vocals. In 2017, she graduated from the Masters in Musical Directing programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and since then has worked almost exclusively on developing new musical theatre.
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Under the umbrella of Fearless Players Theatre Company, Murray wrote and composed two musical shorts - Armour: A Herstory of the Scottish Bard & Burns: A Lost Legacy - which concluded a full run of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 with four and five star reviews and being nominated for Musical Theatre Review's Best New Musical Award. For both shows, Murray received a special award for score composition from Musical Theatre Review. Most recently, Murray wrote and composed Nessie, a children's musical, which performed at Capital Theatre's Studio and Pitlochry Festival Theatre's Studio in spring 2025.
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As musical director, Murray’s works include The Great Gatsby (Pitlochry Festival Theatre & Derby Theatre); Oor Wullie (Noisemaker, Dundee Rep Theatre); Ceilidh (Noisemaker, Foresight Theatrical, Beth Williams, Barbra Whitman); The Snow Queen (The Royal Lyceum Theatre); Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World (Kick Ass theatre Productions Ltd, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 & deputy MD for UK Tour 2023); God Catcher (Prickly Pear Productions & Petrichor Productions, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023); A Mother's Song (Macrobert Art Centre & KT Producing); Orphans (as Associated MD National Theatre of Scotland).
In her capacity as a singer, Murray has performed live and in studios with fellow musicians such as Fat Suit, Roddy Hart, Tommy Reilly, Angus Munro, London Contemporary Voices, the Glasgow Gospel Choir, Hannah Jackson and more. Murray can be heard on the opening song of zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse, released internationally by Blazing Griffin, Parkhouse Pictures, Constellation Creatives and Creative Scotland.
Coming up, Murray will be musically directing Ballad Lines (formerly A Mother's Song) at the Southwark Playhouse Jan-March 2026.
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Photo credits: Liv Giddings & Tim Morrozzo
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