Faces

Lucy Miller Murray's novel Faces is a romantic love story edged with tragedy when Angelica's young husband David is disfigured in an accident. Essential to the story is the different ways in which the two are affected by the event. The tale opens in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a community divided by a river, where the couple first meet as music students. It then moves to Philadelphia where they reencounter each other in graduate school and to Italy where they explore the beauties of Florence but also experience their tragedy. Weaving its way through the novel is the couple's common love of music, a significant focus in the book springing from Murray's well-known career in the music world. Retiring from that world has finally given her time to spell out this tale in a poetic language enriched by her many years within it. The story is both personal and universal, making it a novel not to be missed by adventuresome readers. Lucy Miller Murray's fiction has appeared in Prism International and received two awards from WITF, a National Public Radio affiliate. She is also the author of Chamber Music: An Extensive Guide for Listeners, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2015 and an earlier version, Adams to Zemlinsky published by Concert Artists Guild. Composers Michael Brown, Jeremy Gill, Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking, Moby Dick), Richard Wilson, and Paul Moravec (2004 Pulitzer Prize for Music) have set poems by Lucy Miller Murray to songs that have been performed at Market Square Concerts, Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Kosciusko Foundation in New York City. She is a regular program annotator for Market Square Concerts, the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois, Festival Napa Valley, the Artaria String Quartet at Hamlin University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and other presenters across the country. Her program notes have been read in such distinguished venues as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Lucy Miller Murray holds an undergraduate degree from Chestnut Hill College, a master's degree from Temple University and a certificate in Publishing Procedures from Radcliffe. She was a member of the English faculty at Harrisburg Area Community College and Founder of the acclaimed chamber music series Market Square Concerts in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for which she served as director from 1982 to 2009.