Joseph Phibbs

Joseph Phibbs (born 1974) is an English composer of orchestral, choral and chamber music. He has also composed for theatre, both in the UK and Japan. Since 1998 he has written regularly to commissions for Festivals (including for Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Presteigne, and Three Choirs), for private sponsors, and for the B.B.C., which has broadcast premieres of his orchestral and chamber works from the Proms and elsewhere. His works have been given premieres in Europe, the United States and the Far East, and he has received prestigious awards, including most recently a British Composer Award (for Rivers to the Sea), and a Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award. Many of his works have been premiered by leading international musicians, including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, and the Belcea Quartet.

Joseph Phibbs was born in London. A pianist and cellist, he started composing at the age of ten, and from 1988 to 1992 attended the Purcell School for Young Musicians with the assistance of a scholarship from Suffolk County Council. During this time he received tuition in composition from Param Vir. In 1992 he continued his studies at King's College London, where he was taught by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and where he obtained a BMus degree with a First, taking the Purcell Prize: in 1996 he received an MMus in Composition, having received a British Academy grant.

In that year he was a winner of the BBC Young Composers' Forum, which marked the beginning of a long association with the BBC. A commission in 2001 for his first large-scale orchestral work, In Camera, was premiered at the Barbican by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin: Lumina, for the Last Night of the Proms 2003, was televised from the Royal Albert Hall; and more recently Partita was a joint BBC/Serge Koussevitzky Foundation Award commission. From 1997-2001 he studied at Cornell University towards a doctorate of Musical Arts with Steven Stucky, a teacher and later friend who became a major influence on his music. Many of his orchestral and chamber works are now published by Ricordi (part of the Universal Music Publishing Group), with a number of unaccompanied choral works published by Boosey & Hawkes.

See #References for premières.

Orchestral

• Soirée (1996). (for BBC)
• Dream of a Summer Night (2000). (for Cheltenham Music Festival)
• In Camera (2001). (for BBC)
• Lumina (2003). (for BBC) (Faber Music)
• The Dawn Breakers (2005).
• Shruti (2008), (to Param Vir). (L.S.O. Sound Adventures). (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Night Interludes (2011). (for Presteigne Festival).
• Rivers to the Sea (2012). (for The Anvil, Basingstoke, with the Philharmonia Orchestra). (Ricordi)
• Partita for Orchestra (2016), dedicated to the memory of Steven Stucky. (for Library of Congress Koussevitzky awards with BBC). (Ricordi)

Concertante

• Clarinet Concerto (2009), solo clarinet and string orchestra with harp. (for Orchestra of the Swan). (Ricordi)
• Bar Veloce (2011), solo percussion and orchestra. (for Cheltenham Music Festival).
• Towards Purcell (2012), concertante for oboe, horn, harp and orchestra. (for Purcell School's 50th Anniversary). (Ricordi)
• Datcha Savoyarde – Evian Variations (2013), solo cello with orchestra. (for Evian Festival: Homage to Mstislav Rostropovich in the Britten Centenary). (Ricordi)
• Notturno (2013), solo harp with orchestra. (for David Watkins). (Ricordi)

Instrumental ensemble

• Night Dances (1995), for cello, clarinet and piano.
• Cayuga (1999), mixed chamber ensemble. (for Faber Music Millennium Series). (Faber Music)
• Trio Semplice (2000), trio for violin, cello and piano. (for Schubert Ensemble for Chamber Music). (Chamber Music 2000)
• Ritual Songs and Blessings (2002), for oboe, clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, piano. (for The Spitalfields Festival, London) (Ricordi)
• La Noche Arrolladora (The Spiralling Night) (2002), harpsichord with wind ensemble. (for BBC)
• The Village of Birds (2006), wind and string septet.
• Split Screen (2006), wind band. (Phillip Scott). (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Agea (GEorge vAss) (2007), for string quartet. (Ricordi)
• The Spiralling Night (2007), wind ensemble. (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Flex (2007), quartet for flute, violin, cello and piano. (for Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC, for City of London Festival). (Ricordi)
• Cossax (2008), symphonic wind ensemble. (for Aldeburgh Festival). (Ricordi)
• Quartettino (2012), string quartet. (for The Tricycle Theatre). (Ricordi)
• Festival Fanfare (2014), brass quintet. (for Uzerche Festival).
• String Quartet no. 1 (2014). (for The Piatti Quartet, with the Britten-Pears Foundation and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust). (Ricordi)
• String Quartet no. 2 (2015). (for Presteigne Festival and Little Missenden Festival). (Ricordi)

Instrumental duo and solo

• Fantasia (1998), duo for violin and piano.
• Tango Rouge (2001), duo for bassoon and piano. (Faber Music)
• Spiraling (2001), duo for violin and marimba. (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Fanfares for Harry (2001), duo for clarinet and marimba (to Harrison Birtwistle). (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Light Remains (2003), four movements for solo piano. (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Crimson Joy (2004), duo for trumpet and piano (to Gareth Flowers). (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Personnages (2004), solo for oboe. (for Nicholas Daniel). (Ricordi)
• Arc de Soleil (2008), duo for clarinet and piano. (for Sarah Williamson, in memory of Christopher Ross 1961-2005). (Ricordi)
• Sonatine (2010), duo for cello and piano. (Ricordi)
• Guitar Suite (2013), solo guitar. (Ricordi)
• Serenade for Two Guitars (2013). (for Duo Guitartes).
• Suite for solo violin (2015), solo violin.
• Letters from Warsaw (2015), duo for viola and piano. (for Krzysztof Chorzelski).

Songs and song-cycles

• Canticle of the Rose (2005), high soprano with string quartet (Texts: Edith Sitwell). (for Nicholas and Judith Goodison: Goodison Quartet no. 3.) (Shortlisted for Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber music prize). (Ricordi)
• The Silence at the Song's End (2008) Song-cycle, soprano and string quartet (Texts: Nicholas Heiney). (Burnham Market Festival, Norfolk). (Ricordi)
• The Moon's Funeral (2008), Song, counter-tenor and piano (Text: Hilaire Belloc). (for NMC Songbook recording). (Ricordi)
• From Shore to Shore (2011) Song-cycle, guitar and counter-tenor (Texts: Sara Teasdale and Nicholas Heiney). (for James Boyd, with Arts Council England National Lottery Scheme). (Ricordi)
• Pierrot (2011), Song, soprano, recorder and piano (Text: Sara Teasdale).(for 'Antony Hopkins: A Portrait'). (Ricordi)
• Shades of Night (2012), Songs, tenor and piano. (Texts: Trad., and Louis MacNeice). (for Ben Alden). (Ricordi)
• On a Deserted Shore (2012), Song-cycle, baritone & piano (Text: Kathleen Raine). (for Jeremy Huw Williams with the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, for the Temenos Academy of Integral Studies). (Ricordi)
• Moon Songs (2013-14), Six songs, soprano, recorder (or flute) and piano. (Texts: Sara Teasdale). (for Pierrot Project).
• Night and Silence – Scena (Act 2, Scene 2) from A Midsummer Night's Dream – (2014), high soprano, tenor, baritone and piano. (for Uzerche Festival).

Choral

• Ave verum corpus (2003), Soprano with SATB. (Oxford University Press)
• Rainland (2003-04), Choral drama, libretto by Stephen Plaice. (nu:phonics project for 25th Anniversary of East Sussex Music Service). (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• Levedi, flour of alle thing (St Margaret's Carol) (2004), SATB. (to St Margaret's Church Choir, Ipswich). (Oxford University Press)
• Tenebrae (2005), Cantata. Soprano, chorus, small orchestra and chamber choir. (Texts: David Gascoyne (1916-2001), Henry King, Henry Vaughan and Phineas Fletcher, and from the Latin Mass). (for St Albans Bach Choir). (Oxford University Press)
• Run slowly, horses of the night (2006), Choir and piano.
• Suffolk Chanteys (2008), Chamber choir, wind and percussion (to Sandy Crary). (Britten-Pears Chamber Choir and Aldeburgh Festival). (Contemporary Voices BMIC)
• In excelsis gloria (2008), two-part upper voices, with organ, harp or piano. (for Jenni Wake-Walker). (Boosey & Hawkes)
• Gaudeamus omnes (2009), Introit for the feast of All Saints, SSA, a cappella. (Wells Cathedral girl choristers, Matthew Owens). Rearranged (2010), SSATB, for Exon Singers. (Boosey & Hawkes)
• Sanctus (2010), Chorus, a cappella. (Boosey & Hawkes)
• Modyr, whyt as lyly flour (2010), Carol, SATB, a cappella. (Ricordi)
• Shadows of Sleep (2010), Choral work for trebles, SATB, percussion and piano. (Ricordi)
• Salve Regina (2010), Motet, SSAATTB. (for Exon Singers' Festival, Matthew Owens). (Boosey & Hawkes)
• Choral Songs of Homage (2013), SATB with piano. (Texts: Trad., Henry Vaughan and Thomas Heywood). (for Aldeburgh Music Club for the Britten Centenary).
• Lullay, lullay, thou lytil child (2014), SATB soloists with mixed choir SSATB, a cappella. (for the Fairhaven Singers, Ralph Woodward). (Boosey & Hawkes)
• Missa Brevis (2016), Ordinary of Latin Mass, unaccompanied upper voices in 3 parts. (Boosey & Hawkes)

• Premiere: BBC Symphony Orchestra cond. Gianandrea Noseda, Cheltenham Town Hall, (broadcast) 8 July 2000. Listing: 'Performance on 3: Cheltenham Festival 2000', Radio Times issue 3985, p. 106.
• Premiere: Macau, October 2001. London premiere: BBC Symphony Orchestra cond. Leonard Slatkin), Barbican Hall, 28 October 2001. Listing and Reviews: Keith Potter, 'BBC Symphony Orchestra/Leonard Slatkin, Barbican Hall, London', The Independent, 31 October 2001; Colin Anderson, 'BBCSO/Leonard Slatkin', Classical Source.
• Premiere: BBC Symphony Orchestra cond. Leonard Slatkin, Royal Albert Hall, London Sept 13, 2003. Listing: BBC – Proms – Events. Reviews: Keith Potter, 'Prom 72', The Independent, 17 September 2003. Andrew Clements, 'Birtwistle premiere; Last Night', The Guardian, 15 September 2003. Nick Breckenfield, 'Prom 73 – The Last Night', Classical Source; Nick Kimberley, London Evening Standard, 15 September 2003.
• Premiere: Orchestra of the Swan cond. David Curtis, Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon, 21 March 2005. Review: Rian Evans, 'Orchestra of the Swan/Curtis', The Guardian, 23 March 2005.
• Premiere: Michael Whight, clarinet, London Symphony Orchestra cond. Vasily Petrenko, Barbican Hall, London, 13 February 2008. Listing and Review: Colin Anderson, 'LSO/Vasily Petrenko Ayako Uehara (Shruti & Paganini Rhapsody)', Classical Source.
• Premiere: Presteigne Festival Orchestra cond. George Vass, St Andrew's Church, Presteigne, 25 August 2011. Listing: George Vass – Premieres. Review: Rian Evans, 'Presteigne Festival – Review. St Andrew's Church, Presteigne', The Guardian, 29 August 2011.
• Premiere: The Anvil, Basingstoke, 22 June 2012. London Premiere: Philharmonia Orchestra cond. Esa-Pekka Salonen, Royal Festival Hall, 28 June 2012. Interview: 'Joseph Phibbs: Rivers to the Sea (New Commission)', Philharmonia Orchestra video, 2012, Vimeo. Listing/Review: Douglas Cooksey, 'Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen at Royal Festival Hall – Phibbs’s Rivers to the Sea & Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony', Classical Source.
• Premiere: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo, Barbican Hall, London, 21 May 2016. Interview: Elinor Cooper, 'Partita for a friend', BBC Music Magazine website, 5 May 2016. Review: Colin Anderson, 'BBC Symphony Orchestra – Sakari Oramo, Saturday, May 21, 2016 Classical source.
• Premiere: Sarah Williamson, clarinet, with Orchestra of the Swan cond. David Curtis, Cadogan Hall, London, 28 October 2009. US Premiere: Ithaca, N.Y., 8 March 2014. Interview: Gavin Dixon, 'A breath of fresh air: An interview with Sarah Williamson and Joseph Phibbs', Seen and Heard International.
• Premiere: Dame Evelyn Glennie, percussion, Cheltenham Festival Academy Orchestra cond. Neil Thompson, Cheltenham Town Hall, 1 July 2011. Article: Evelyn Glennie, 'Evelyn Glennie sounds off: The Cocktail Party', Tom Tom Magazine, 28 July 2011. Listing: Sound and Music – The Sampler. Review: Jill Bacon, 'Musical triumph', Gloucestershire Echo, 4 July 2011.
• Premiere: Nicholas Daniel, oboe with The Purcell School cond. Quentin Poole, Royal Festival Hall, 19 March 2012. Listing and Review: Colin Anderson, 'The Purcell School 50th-Anniversary Celebration', Classical Source.
• Premiere: Maxim Beitan, cello, with Evian Festival Orchestra, cond. Laurence Dale, 'Les Escales Musicales' (13th season), Grange au Lac, Evian-les-Bains, France, 17 May 2013. Listing: [www.casino-evian.com/pdf/Escales-Musicales-2013.pdf 'Les Escales Musicales' 2013 Brochure.]
• Premiere: David Watkins, harp with Trinity Laban String Ensemble cond. Nic Pendlebury, Great Hall, Blackheath Halls, 26 November 2013. Listing: Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Performances & Events Sep-Dec 2013.
• Premiere: London Sinfonietta cond. Pierre-André Valade, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 15 April 2000. Listing, with composer's commentary: Faber Music.
• Premiere: Chroma Ensemble, Christ Church, Spitalfields, London, 25 June 2002. Listing: Chroma. Review: Keith Potter, 'A statue within a block of marble', The Independent, 3 July 2002. Recording: in On Shifting Ground, NMC Digital Discoveries Vol 2 (NMCDL3002).
• Premiere: Ian Brown, harpsichord, English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble cond. Benjamin Wallfisch, in Lecture Theatre, Victoria & Albert Museum, 5 Aug 2002. Listing: BBC – Proms 2002 Chamber Music. Review: David Wordsworth, 'PCM3: New Phibbs', Classical Source.
• Premiere: Britten Sinfonia, Cambridge, 2006.
• Premiere: Sarah Williamson, clarinet and National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain cond. Phillip Scott, World Association of Symphonic Wind Bands and Ensembles Conference, Killarney 2007. Recording: Mark Records.
• Premiere: City of London Festival, 2007. Composer's commentary: Notes to "Joseph Phibbs – The Canticle of the Rose", NMC Debut Discs D191.
• Mixed professional and amateur ensemble, Aldeburgh Beach, Suffolk, June 2005. Listing/Review: Anna Picard, 'Aldeburgh Festival, Snape and other venues, Suffolk. More sonorities from beside the sea', The Independent, 25 June 2005.
• Premiere: Honeymead Quartet, Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn High Road, London, 16 September 2012. Composer's preview: Tricycle Theatre.
• Premiere by Les Cuivres du Sud, L'Abbatiale Saint-Pierre, 15 August 2014, Uzerche Festival.
• Premiere: Piatti Quartet, St Mary's Church, Rye, 27 September 2014. London Premiere: Piatti Quartet, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, 26 April 2015. Listing: Piatti Quartet.
• Premiere: Navarra Quartet, St Andrew's Church, Presteigne, Presteigne Festival 29 August 2015. Listing: Presteigne Festival 2015 Brochure, Event 11. Review: Peter Reynolds, 'Plenty of life in the old String Quartet at Presteigne', Hereford Times, 2 September 2015.
• Premiere: Sarah Williamson, clarinet, Catherine Milledge, piano: Wigmore Hall, London, January 2008. Review: Michael Church, 'Wu Qian, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, London', The Independent, 7 February 2008.
• Premiere: Jessie Ann Richardson, cello with Lynn Carter, piano, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London, 13 January 2011. Review: Andrew Morris, Classical Source.
• Premiere: James Boyd, guitar, Old Theatre Royal at Bath Masonic Hall, 24 May 2014. Interview (James Boyd): International Bath Music Festival.
• Premiere: Tamsin Waley-Cohen, violin, St John's Downshire Hill, Hampstead (Hampstead Arts Festival), 16 November 2015. Listing: (as for Letters from Warsaw).
• Premiere: Krzysztof Chorzelski, viola and Laurene Durantel, piano, St John's Downshire Hill, Hampstead (Hampstead Arts Festival), 16 November 2015. Listing: 'Letters from Warsaw', Hampstead Arts Festival. Interview: 'Q&A: Krzysztof Chorzelski commissions Letters from Warsaw,' The Amati Magazine 153.
• Composer's commentary: Notes to "Joseph Phibbs – The Canticle of the Rose", NMC Debut Discs D191. Notes at: www.eclassical.com/shop/17115/art41/4761241-6916f4-5023363019125.pdf. Video commentary: You Tube.
• Premiere: Lisa Milne, soprano, with Belcea Quartet, Wigmore Hall, London, 14 March 2005. Review: Robert Maycock, 'Belcea Quartet, Wigmore Hall, London', The Independent, 14 December 2005.
• Nicholas Heiney, ed. E.M. Purves, The Silence at the Song's End (Songsend Books, 2007).
• Premiere: Sylvia O'Brien, soprano, Burnham Market, Norfolk, September 2008. Aldeburgh Premiere: Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, September 2008. Bach Cantatas Website – Sylvia O'Brien.
• Premiere: James Bowman,counter-tenor, Andrew Plant, piano, recorded August/September 2008, in The NMC Songbook, NMC 150.
• James Boyd, guitar with Michael Chance, counter-tenor, in recording "Joseph Phibbs – The Canticle of the Rose", NMC Debut Discs D191. Notes include composer's commentary.
• Premiere: Lesley-Jane Rogers, John Turner, Janet Simpson in 'Antony Hopkins: A Portrait', Divine Art DDA21217.
• Premiere: Ben Alden (tenor) with Andrew Plant (piano), St Thomas' Church, Penkhull (Penkhull Music & Arts Festival), 22 September 2012. Composer's commentary: Notes to "Joseph Phibbs – The Canticle of the Rose", NMC Debut Discs D191. Listing: Andrew Plant Concert Archive.
• Premiere: Jeremy Huw Williams, baritone with Nigel Foster, piano, St David's Hall, Cardiff, 29 January 2013. (Temenos Conference, Oxford, 13-15 September 2012). Listing: Cardiff Violins Ltd.
• Pierrot Project.
• Performed by Lesley-Jane Rogers, soprano, Carole Nash Room, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 26 October 2014, (Lesley Jane Rogers), and with members of the Dr K. Sextet, 'Pierrot Kabarett' Concert, Club Inegales, Gower Street, London, 22 January 2015 (Dr K. Sextet).
• Premiere by Eileen Hulse, soprano, Philip Sheffield, tenor, Jeremy Huw Williams,baritone, and Paul Beynet, piano, L'Abbatiale Saint-Pierre, 17 August 2014, Uzerche Festival. Listing: (as for Festival Fanfare).
• Cantica Nova (Oxford University Press, 2003).
• Project: Urbanflo.
• Premiere: Chorus of over 1000 children and 3 soloists, 'Music in our Lifetime' Concert, Royal Albert Hall, 19 March 2004. (Southern and South East Arts).
• The Ivy and the Holly (Oxford University Press, 2004)
• Premiere: Lesley-Jane Rogers, soprano, St Albans Bach Choir cond. Andrew Lucas, St Albans Abbey, 1 April 2005. Composer's commentary: "A Note for Tenebrae by Joseph Phibbs", Review: Jill Barlow, "St Albans Abbey: Joseph Phibbs's Tenebrae", Tempo, October 2006, Vol. 60 issue 238, p. 67.
• Premiere: New London Children's Choir, Almeida Theatre, London, 28 June 2006.
• Premiere: Britten-Pears Chamber Choir dir. Matthew Rowe, Aldeburgh Beach, 15 June 2008.
• Premiere: School choirs from Suffolk with the Britten-Pears Chamber Choir under Peter Nardone, Snape Maltings, 13 November 2010. Listing: Andrew Plant Concert Archive.
• Premiere: The Exon Singers, Buckfast Abbey, Devon, 28 July 2010. (BBC Radio 3 outside broadcast)
• Premiere: Aldeburgh Music Club Choir, St Bartholomew's Church, Orford, Suffolk, 25 May 2013. Programme with texts: Aldeburgh Music Club.
• (Includes Introit composed 2009). Premiere: Choristers of Wells Cathedral choir dir. Matthew Owens, Wells Cathedral, 5 May 2016.

• Official website
• Composer's video commentary on The Canticle of the Rose on YouTube
• Interview (James Boyd), International Bath Music Festival
• Interview: 'Joseph Phibbs: Rivers to the Sea (New Commission)', Philharmonia Orchestra video, 2012 (Vimeo)
• Interview: Gavin Dixon, 'A breath of fresh air: An interview with Sarah Williamson and Joseph Phibbs', Seen and Heard International
• Interview August 2011, in A. Palmer, Encounters with British Composers (Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2015), pp. xxi, 381-391
• Interview with Joseph Phibbs, Beethovenfest Bonn 2012
• Krzysztof Chorzelski commissions Letters from Warsaw, The Amati Magazine 153
• A. Whittall: "From post-tonal to postmodern? Two string quartets by Joseph Phibbs", Musical Times, Autumn 2016
• Sound and Music British Music Collection