He is a lover of avant-garde music and a patron of, among others, the French composer Jean-Michel Damase and the Melba Foundation in Australia. Humphries is a patron and active supporter of the Tait Memorial Trust in London, a charity to support young Australian performing artists in the UK. When Humphries was on the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" radio programme in 2009, he made the following choices: "" from Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier"; Gershwin's "Things are Looking Up" sung by Fred Astaire; "Love Song" composed by Josef Suk; "On Mother Kelly's Doorstep" sung by Randolph Sutton; "" from Schubert's "Winterreise" song cycle; the 2nd movement of Poulenc's Flute Sonata; Mischa Spoliansky's ""; and "They are not long the weeping and the laughter" from Delius' "Songs of Sunset".