Paul Schuyler Phillips (born April 28, 1956) is an American conductor, composer and music scholar. He is the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies, with the rank of Associate Professor in Teaching, at Stanford University, where he directs the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Philharmonia. He is also Music Director and Conductor of the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus, and maintains an international career as a guest conductor and composer. As a scholar, he is best known for his works on Igor Stravinsky and

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...

Conducting

In 1982, Phillips accepted Michael Gielen’s invitation to become his conducting assistant at the Frankfurt Opera, and was appointed 1st Kapellmeister and Chorus Director at Stadttheater Lüneburg the following year. Upon winning 1st Prize in the NOS International Conductors Course in the Netherlands (1983) and selection as a Finalist in the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program (1984), he left Germany and returned to the US as Associate Conductor of the Greensboro Symphony, Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor of the Greensboro Opera. In 1985, he began a 14-year affiliation with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra as Youth Concert Conductor, conducting the annual MSO Citibank Youth Concerts from 1986-1999. In 1986 he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Savannah Symphony, adding the post of Director of the Savannah Symphony Chorale in 1987. In 1989, he assumed his position as Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music at Brown University concurrent with an appointment as Associate Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and in 1994 was named Music Director and Conductor of the Pioneer Valley Symphony & Chorus. During his tenure with that organization, he has led it to new artistic heights and recognition as one of the leading arts institutions in western Massachusetts. Acclaimed as a conductor “who was born to stand on a podium,” Phillips has appeared with more than 50 orchestras worldwide, including the

Detroit Symphony The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music ...

, San Francisco Symphony,

Rochester Philharmonic The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music. History George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Compan ...

Louisville Orchestra The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney (1904–1986) and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville. The Louisville Orchestra employs salaried musicians, and offers a wide ...

, Charlotte Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra, with which he recorded two compact disks. He has also conducted Regional and All-State Orchestras in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Vermont. With a repertoire of over 900 works performed in concert, Phillips has conducted much of the standard orchestral repertoire as well as many operas, musical theatre works and ballets. These include productions of '' Candide, Carmen,

Die Fledermaus ' (, ''The Flittermouse'' or ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original li ...

Don Pasquale ''Don Pasquale'' () is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti with an Italian libretto completed largely by Giovanni Ruffini as well as the composer. It was based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli for Stefano Pavesi's ...

, Madama Butterfly,

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

The Medium ''The Medium'' is a short (one-hour-long) two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first profes ...

, Merrily We Roll Along,

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

The Pirates of Penzance ''The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 187 ...

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet Stre ...

'' and ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...

'' with such companies as the Boston Academy of Music, Commonwealth Opera, Ocean State Lyric Opera, Opera Providence, Connecticut Concert Ballet, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island and the Wisconsin Dance Ensemble. He has also guest conducted numerous choirs, including the Providence Singers, Hampshire Choral Society and Boston's Masterworks Chorale. Phillips's conducting honors include 1st Prize in the Wiener Meisterkurse Conductors Course and eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, including 1st prize with the Brown University Orchestra in 2005 in the Collegiate Orchestra Division. He has conducted dozens of regional and world premieres, and hosted numerous composers-in-residence at Brown and with the Pioneer Valley Symphony, including Steve Reich, Steven Stucky,

Joseph Schwantner Joseph Clyde Schwantner (born March 22, 1943, Chicago, Illinois) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer, educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2002. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize. Schwantne ...

, Samuel Adler,

Lukas Foss Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...

David Amram David Werner Amram III (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings.

, William P. Perry,

Michael Torke Michael Torke (; born September 22, 1961) is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Torke was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended Wilson Elementary School, graduated from Wauwatosa East High School, an ...

, Peter Boyer,

George Walker George Walker may refer to: Arts and letters * George Walker (chess player) (1803–1879), English chess player and writer *George Walker (composer) (1922–2018), American composer * George Walker (illustrator) (1781–1856), author of ''The Co ...

and

Gwyneth Walker Gwyneth Van Anden Walker (born 22 March 1947) is an American music educator and composer. Biography Walker was born in New York to a Quaker family and grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. She began her first efforts at composition at an early age a ...

. He has conducted concerts with Itzhak Perlman, Sergiu Luca,

Christopher O'Riley Christopher O'Riley is an American classical pianist and public radio show host. He was the host of the weekly National Public Radio program '' From the Top''. O'Riley is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative. Early life ...

Matt Haimovitz Matt Haimovitz (born December 3, 1970) is a cellist based in the United States and Canada. Born in Israel, he grew up in the US from the age of five. He plays mainly a cello made by Matteo Goffriller in 1710. Family, musical education and ea ...

, Carol Wincenc,

Eugenia Zukerman Eugenia Rich Zukerman (born September 25, 1944, Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an American flutist, writer, and journalist. An internationally renowned flute virtuoso, Zukerman has been performing with major orchestras and at major music festivals i ...

and other noted soloists, as well as with Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie,

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

, Dionne Warwick,

Glen Campbell Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting '' The Glen Campbell Good ...

Ferrante & Teicher Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American pianists, known for their light arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes as well as their signature style of florid, intricate, and fast-paced piano playing performances ...

, and other jazz and pop stars. In December 2006/January 2007, he led the Brown University Orchestra on a New Year's concert tour of China that included performances in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

's Poly Theatre, at the

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

Oriental Art Center, and in

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

, Dalian, Suzhou and

Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...

. He premiered Elaine Bearer's "Seaselves" in 1994 composed on a poem by

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

performed by the Brown University Orchestra with poetry read by

Salty Brine Salty Brine, born Walter Leslie Brine (August 5, 1918 – November 2, 2004 ), was a well-known broadcaster in Rhode Island. Early life At age 10, he lost one of his legs, attempting to jump onto a freight train near his home in Arlington, Massach ...

. Combined with other new pieces that Phillips conducted that year, this performance led to an ASCAP award for adventurous programming.

Composition

Concert works

''Battle-Pieces'' ( Melville) & piano; also B & orchestra 2011
''War Music'' Suite ( Logue) TB soli & orchestra 2009
''A/B:'' A 90th Birthday Celebration of Anthony Burgess (Phillips) ctor & chamber ensemble 2007
''Invocation'' ( Rumi) , fl, pf 2004
''Black Notes and White'' rass, perc, org 2001
''Three Burgess Lyrics'' ( Burgess) ATB chorus, vln, pf 1999
''Celestial Harmonies'' allet for string orch 1997
''Brownian Motion'' rch 1995
''Come On Out and Play'' (

Harley Harley may refer to: People * Harley (given name) * Harley (surname) Places * Harley, Ontario, a township in Canada * Harley, Brant County, Ontario, Canada * Harley, Shropshire, England * Harley, South Yorkshire, England * Harley Street, in L ...

) inger-narrator & orch 1996 (based on a story by singer/songwriter Bill Harley)
''Miracle Songs'' (various) & piano 1987
''Wave'' rch 2014

Stage works

''War Music'' (

Christopher Logue Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 – 2 December 2011)Mark EspineObituary: Christopher Logue ''The Guardian'', 2 December 2011 was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, and a pacifist. Life Born in Portsmouth, ...

), 2005, rev. 2006 * 90-minute music theatre piece based on Logue's adaptation of

The Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Ody ...

. Commissioned by the RI-based performance ensemble Aurea; premiered September 2005 at the FirstWorksProv Festival in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

; revived 2006 at the

Chicago Humanities Festival The Chicago Humanities Festival is a non-profit organization which hosts an annual series of lectures, concerts, and films in Chicago. There are two seasons each year, including a spring festival from April through May, and a longer fall festival ...

and 2007 at the New York Festival of the Humanities. ''Mann ist Mann'' (

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

), 1984
''Dorothees Abenteuer im Lande des Zauberers von Ooz'' orothy's Adventures in the Land of the Wizard of Oz(

Baum Baum is a German surname meaning "tree" (not to be confused with the French surname Baume). Notable people with this surname include: * Bernie Baum (1929–1993), American songwriter * Carol Baum, American film producer * Christina Baum (b ...

), 1983
''Pericles'' (

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

), 1978

Opera

''Weedpatch'' 2018 * Libretto by Bill Harley. Commissioned by North Cambridge Family Opera.

Music scholarship

Phillips is the author of ''A Clockwork Counterpoint: The Music and Literature of Anthony Burgess'' (Manchester University Press, 2010), the first comprehensive study of Burgess's music and its relationship to his writings. He contributed the

entry in

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

, several articles published in the Anthony Burgess Newsletter, the essay "The postmodernist always swings nice" in ''Anthony Burgess and Modernity'' (Manchester University Press, 2008), and the essay "That Man and Music: Ten Reasons Why Anthony Burgess’s Music Matters" in ''Anthony Burgess: Music in Literature and Literature in Music'' (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009). His essay "Burgess and Music" will appear in the new Norton Critical Edition of ''A Clockwork Orange'' (Norton, 2010). In his book ''Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions'',

Richard Taruskin Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as ...

cites Phillips's article "The Enigma of Variations: A Study of Igor Stravinsky's Final Work for Orchestra" (''Music Analysis'', 1984) as "the best exposition in print of Stravinsky's serial methods."

Education

Phillips, a graduate of Cranford High School in New Jersey, attended the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

before transferring to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he received a BA ''cum laude'' in music and MA in music composition. Subsequently, he received a MM in orchestral conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Gerhard Samuel. He completed additional studies at

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

Aspen Music Festival and School The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) is a classical music festival held annually in Aspen, Colorado. It is noted both for its concert programming and the musical training it offers to mostly young-adult music students. Founded in 1949, the ...

Music Academy of the West The Music Academy is a classical music training program in Montecito in Santa Barbara County, California. Overview The academy hosts an annual eight-week summer music festival, highlighted by concerts and workshops directed by famous composer ...

, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute,

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Mo ...

in Salzburg, and other music academies, studying with Leonard Bernstein,

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer. Early life and education Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus O ...

, Seiji Ozawa,

Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...

Otmar Suitner Otmar Suitner (German pronunciation: �ɔtmaʁ zuˈiːtnɐ 16 May 1922 – 8 January 2010) was an Austrian conductor who spent most of his professional career in East Germany. He was born in Innsbruck and died in Berlin. He was Principal Conduct ...

and other conductors. His composition and orchestration teachers include Karel Husa, Warren Benson, Samuel Adler,

Fred Lerdahl Alfred Whitford (Fred) Lerdahl (born March 10, 1943, in Madison, Wisconsin) is the Fritz Reiner Professor Emeritus of Musical Composition at Columbia University, and a composer and music theorist best known for his work on musical grammar and co ...

, George Edwards, and

Allen Sapp Allen Sapp (January 2, 1928 – December 29, 2015) was a Canadian Cree painter, who resided in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. His art and his story have become known throughout Canada. His paintings tell a personal story, and many feature image ...

. He studied piano with Niels Østbye, Kyriena Siloti and Jeanne-Marie Darré, among others.

Film and television

In the 1994 motion picture ''

True Lies ''True Lies'' is a 1994 American spy action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Art Malik, Tia Carrere, Bill Paxton, Eliza Dushku, Grant Heslov and Charlton Heston. ...

'', Phillips briefly appears in the opening scene, which was filmed in Newport, RI. Arnold Schwarzenegger, portraying the spy Harry Tasker, crashes an exclusive private party, crosses the main ballroom, and turns into a library where he hands Phillips, bearded and wearing a tuxedo adorned by a white silk scarf around his neck, his glass of champagne before heading upstairs. In 1999, Phillips was featured as a performer and commentator on Anthony Burgess's music in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...