Julian Philips


Julian Philips is a British composer. Philips' works have been performed at major music festivals, including The Proms, Tanglewood, Three Choirs Festival, at the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall and by international artists such as Gerald Finley, Dawn Upshaw, Sir Thomas Allen, the Vertavo String Quartet, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, the BBC orchestras and the Aurora Orchestra.
He has had a number of broadcasts and was the subject of a BBC Wales TV documentary and a BBC 2 series.
In 2007, Philips was presented with an Honorary Fellowship from the Guildhall School, and subsequently conferred with a Professorship.

Early life

Philips was born in Wales in 1969, brought up in Warwickshire, studied Music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, completing his doctorate at Sussex University.

Career

Philips took up the post of Head of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2004 transforming the Guildhall Composition Department while also establishing a series of flag-ship projects, most notably a Doctoral Composer-in-Residence scheme, and an MA in Opera-Making & Writing, both in association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. For over a decade, Philips has led the Wigmore Study Group an innovative adult education group which he established for the Wigmore Hall, and has enjoyed a particular association with the Orchestra of the Swan, both through a series of commissions and education projects. In 2007, Philips was presented with an Honorary Fellowship from the Guildhall School, and subsequently conferred with a Professorship.

Works

Philips held the Glyndebourne's first Composer in Residence. He is published by Edition Peters.
Whilst at Glyndebourne, Philips completed two chamber operas in 2006-2009, Followers with libretto by Simon Christmas and The Yellow Sofa with a libretto by Edward Kemp. He then went on to write his youth opera Knight Crew for Glyndebourne with a libretto by Nicky Singer; the opera subsequently featured in a BBC 2 documentary. His opera How the Whale Became, again with a libretto by Edward Kemp, was written for the 2013/14 Royal Opera House's Christmas season. In 2017, Philips' opera The Tale of Januarie received its premiere at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, based on Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale with a Middle English libretto by writer Stephen Plaice.
In 2003, Philips collaborated with British choreographer Michael Corder on a new full-length ballet based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses for English National Ballet, collaborating again with Corder on a Prokofiev-based score for The Snow Queen'', again for English National Ballet. In 2012, Philips worked with French choreographer Mikaël 'Marso' Rivière on a hybrid dance-concerto for violist Maximillian Baillie and the Aurora Orchestra, which premiered at the 2012 Deal Festival. His has been featured on BBC radio.
In 2018 Philips is working on a new viola concerto for violist Virginia Slater, a large-scale choral work with a text by Stephen Plaice commissioned by InterOpera, and a new oboe quintet for the Wigmore Hall.

Operas