"Phillips and the DSO gave them a high spirited
performance."
[Detroit Symphony Orchestra]
The Flint Journal
"The SSO gave a reading that was at once
muscular but refined, elegant but vigorous, meticulous but not
overfussy.
Mr. Phillips was unhurried, stressing every detail of articulation,
never losing sight of the flow and global design."
[Savannah Symphony Orchestra]
Savannah News-Press
"Paul Phillips displayed a high level of
technical competence and musical acumen...and succeeded in coaxing the
Memphis Symphony to give its considerable best."
[Memphis Symphony]
The Commercial Appeal
"...this performance crackled with energy and
practically erupted with color. In every respect, this was an
outstanding concert." [Greensboro Symphony Orchestra]
Spectator
"Paul Phillips seemed very much in command and
brought a nice sense of ease and elegance to much of the music."
[Rhode Island Philharmonic]
Providence Journal-Bulletin
"I can't remember when I've had so much fun at a
concert. The enjoyment was largely due to the charm and talent of
conductor Paul Phillips...Phillips inspired most of the usually sedate
concert crowd to their feet for a well served ovation."
[Rhode Island Philharmonic]
Warwick Beacon
"The DSO brought to Flint one of the three most
famous youth concert pieces... "Carnival of the Animals" by Saint-Saens.
Led by Paul Phillips, the concert opened with two other works well
chosen for youngsters: Smetana's Dance of the Comedians from "The
Bartered Bride" and Dvorak's "Carnival" Overture. Phillips and the DSO
gave them a high-spirited performance.
[Detroit Symphony Orchestra]
The Flint Journal
"Phillips clearly had the orchestra's fullest
support in a concert which included fiery and difficult works by
Hector Berlioz and Igor Stravinsky, whose "Petrouchka" made for a
triumphant close to the evening."
[Greensboro Symphony Orchestra] Greensboro News & Record
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After beginning his career
as a coach/conductor at the Frankfurt Opera and Stadttheater Lüneburg
in Germany, Paul Phillips returned to the US, assuming conducting
posts with the Greensboro Symphony, Greensboro Opera, Savannah
Symphony and Rhode Island Philharmonic. Paul Phillips has conducted
the San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony,
Louisville Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Charlotte Symphony,
Columbus Symphony, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Pro Arte
Orchester of Vienna and many other orchestras worldwide.
Since 1989 he has served as Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music
at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Under his leadership,
the Brown University Orchestra has performed in Carnegie Hall with the
Dave Brubeck Quartet and in Avery Fisher Hall with Itzhak Perlman, and
been acknowledged as one of the country’s most outstanding university
orchestras. Phillips’s conducting honors include 1st Prize in the NOS
International Conductors Course in Holland, 1st Prize in the Wiener
Meisterkurse Conductors Course in Vienna, selection for the Exxon/Arts
Endowment Conductors Program in the US, and seven ASCAP Awards for
Adventurous Programming. As Music Director of the Pioneer Valley
Symphony and Chorus since 1994, he has led that organization to new
artistic heights and recognition as one of the leading arts
institutions in western Massachusetts.
Paul Phillips has recorded two compact discs with the Iceland Symphony
Orchestra and been invited to guest conduct the Orquestra do Norte in
Portugal next season. Recent appearances include the Bangor Symphony,
Berkshire Symphony, Boston Academy of Music, Boston Conservatory
Chamber Players, Cheyenne Symphony, Commonwealth Opera, Connecticut
Concert Ballet, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, Hartford Symphony,
Manchester Symphony, Ocean State Lyric Opera, Opera Providence and the
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
 Phillips
possesses a conducting repertoire of over 800 works, including much of
the standard orchestral repertoire, and has frequently conducted
opera, musical theatre and ballet, including Candide, Carmen, Die
Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, The Medium, Nutcracker, The Pirates of
Penzance, Sweeney Todd and Tosca. He enjoys popular music and has led
concerts featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Dionne
Warwick, Glen Campbell and other jazz and pop stars. A strong believer
in the importance of music in the lives of young people, Phillips has
worked extensively with student musicians and audiences as Youth
Concert Conductor of the Maryland Symphony and as conductor of
numerous youth and All-State orchestras. In collaboration with Bill
Harley, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, he has composed and
arranged pieces for youth concerts that are performed by orchestras
throughout the country.
Phillips graduated cum laude in music from Columbia University. He
holds advanced degrees in composition and conducting from Columbia and
the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and
pursued additional studies at the Eastman School of Music, the
Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Académie internationale d'été in Nice, the
Music Academy of the West, Aspen and Tanglewood. His teachers include
Kyriena Siloti and Jeanne-Marie Darré [piano], Warren Benson and
Samuel Adler [composition], and Kurt Masur, Gunther Schuller and
Leonard Bernstein [conducting].
Phillips’s interests also include composition and he has composed many
concert works as well as music for theatre and film; his music has
been performed internationally and received several awards, from such
organizations as the American Music Center and ASCAP. As a pianist, he
has performed at the Mohawk Trail Concerts, Piccolo Spoleto Festival,
Carnegie Recital Hall and Lincoln Center, and has recorded for film
and television. As a scholar, Paul Phillips is best known for his work
on the music of Igor Stravinsky and Anthony Burgess. His article in
Music Analysis titled The Enigma of Variations: A Study of
Stravinsky’s Final Work for Orchestra has been cited by the
eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin as "the best exposition in print
of Stravinsky’s serial methods". Considered the world’s leading
authority on the music of composer/novelist Anthony Burgess, Phillips
wrote the entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musician and
is a featured commentator in the BBC documentary The Burgess
Variations. His forthcoming book A Clockwork Counterpoint: The
Music and Literature of Anthony Burgess is scheduled for
publication in 2005 by Manchester University Press.
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