The North Dakota String Quartet soon will be a duet.

Dan and Kathy Murphy have hit a da capo, and are going home.

The musical Bismarck couple met in Colorado, and it's to the mountains they'll return this summer after 13 years in North Dakota. The Murphys made quite a mark here in that time, getting in on the ground floor of the Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra, the Dakota Youth Symphony and the North Dakota String Quartet.

But their greatest joy, they said, was teaching their many students to play the violin.

"That's the hardest part, is leaving them," Kathy Murphy said last week. "I've got kids I personally took from 4 years old all the way through (high school). To see them go from barely being able to hold a violin to playing all these musical masterpieces is a wonderful thing."

In the basement of the Murphys' River Bend Conservatory of Music, on the corner of Fifth Street and Avenue B, Dan Murphy also has been repairing and selling violins since 1994. It's that pursuit that has resulted in their pending departure.

Dan Murphy will open Murphy Violin Shop in Fort Collins in July.

He'll continue to repair violins, and will sell new instruments made by third-generation luthier David Reeve. Murphy has apprenticed under Reeve, who owns a shop in Longmont, Colo., for several years. Dan and Kathy Murphy each play violins constructed by Reeve, as does Glenn Dicterow, the concertmaster for the New York Philharmonic.

"He's been my mentor for 20 years," Dan Murphy said. "He's asked over the years if I'd be interested in coming back to help. I'll be taking over a lot of his work.

"I like taking things that are all beat up and making them beautiful again," Murphy said. "I can be working on a violin and look up at the clock and see that three hours have gone by."

The Murphys said Bismarck was a great place to raise their three children, and thought they'd be here for a few more years. But this opportunity was too good to neglect. On top of working for his mentor and owning his own shop, the Murphys have history in Fort Collins.

"It's our home," Kathy Murphy said. "We met there. It's where we got married. Our two boys were born there. We lived on the Front Range for 10 years. It called to us. It was a logical choice."

Kathy Murphy said she looks forward to playing professionally again, with the Fort Collins Symphony. But she is going to miss those students of hers.

"I hope we planted some pretty good seeds," she said.

One of those good seeds has established roots here. Tara Bohlen, a former student of Kathy Murphy's, plays the viola in the string quartet. She also has her own students now.

"They raised people in the community like myself who aren't planning on leaving anytime soon," Bohlen said. "As a resident, I feel grateful. They added tremendously to the community through their presence, with their teaching, Dan's violin studio, building the conservatory. I think they brought a professional quality of music-making to this community, and they sustained it over a long period of time. They gave 13 years of their lives. I think their commitment to the town has really stabilized things. I could cry just thinking about them leaving."

The Murphys were instrumental in the founding of the local chamber orchestra seven years ago. Curtis Peacock, conductor of the MVCO, said Dan and Kathy Murphy were more than just good violin players.

"They're such fine players - they play like artists," Peacock said. "They, of course, will be missed in that way. But there were so many other functions they fulfilled in the community, there were so many facets to what they did. They were wonderful teachers. Kathy was a very experienced music librarian. She got the music together, ordered it, sorted it, distributed it and dealt with all the personnel. And the Murphys also gave thousands of dollars (to advance the arts)."

The Murphys are trying to sell their conservatory and their home. They plan to be settled in Colorado by July 1.

"They really tried to build something here," Bohlen said. "The impact they made here is a lasting impact. You don't replace people like them."

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@bismarcktribune.com.)