Biography
one of the most successful composers of his generation
Joseph Phibbs was born in London, and studied at The Purcell School, King’s College London, and Cornell University. His teachers have included Param Vir, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and Steven Stucky.
Described by BBC Music Magazine as “one of the most successful composers of his generation”, Phibbs’s works have been championed by some of the world’s leading conductors, including Edward Gardner, Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo, Vassily Petrenko, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Leonard Slatkin. Rivers to the Sea, the first of several large-scale orchestral works composed in recent years, was premiered to acclaim in 2012 by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, and has since received numerous performances in the UK and abroad, winning a British Composer Award in 2013.
A recording of his Clarinet Concerto, first performed in 2017 by Mark van de Wiel and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Edward Gardner, attracted widespread critical acclaim in The Sunday Times, Classic FM, Classical Source, and elsewhere, and was selected by The Sunday Times as one of the 100 Best Albums of 2019. He has also composed concertos for Evelyn Glennie (Bar Veloce), Sarah Williamson (Concertino for clarinet, strings, and harp), and Nicholas Daniel (Towards Purcell, a concertante work for oboe, horn, harp), as well as Evian Variations (Dacha Savoyarde) for cello and orchestra, premiered under Laurence Dale at the 2013 Evian Festival.
Other orchestras to have performed and commissioned his works include the London Symphony Orchestra, Washington Symphony Orchestra, Malmo Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Symphony Orchestra, for which he has written five works to date, including In Camera, Lumina (Last Night of the Proms), and Partita (supported by a Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award).
His instrumental music includes three string quartets, (for Piatti Quartet (2014), Navarra Quartet (2015), and Belcea Quartet/Carnegie Hall (2018)), song cycles, and sonatas. His violin sonata, composed for Mathilde Milwidsky in 2020, was followed by a cello sonata for Guy Johnston (2021), who has since performed the work extensively both in US and UK. His most recent chamber work, Night Paths, was commissioned by saxophonist Huw Wiggin, whose recording was released earlier this year on Orchid Classics with pianist Noriko Ogawa. In October, the Wigmore Hall will present an overview of his chamber music from the last decade in two portrait concerts, to include the premiere of a string quintet by Piatti Quartet.
His works have been featured at a various festivals – BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Three Choirs, Cheltenham, Hatfield House, and Tanglewood – although over the last decade he has enjoyed a particularly close association with the Presteigne Festival, for which director George Vass has commissioned many works, including (jointly with Nova Music Opera/Cheltenham Festival) the opera Juliana, to a libretto by Laurie Slade, a recording of which was released on Resonus Classics to critical acclaim.
He also composes for choir, with performances and recordings by leading groups such as Tenebrae, The Sixteen, and ORA Singers.
Commissions for 2023 have included substantial pieces for the Britten Sinfonia, Ben Goldscheider/Tom Poster, and the Piatti Quartet with Tim Lowe. Future commissions are for Westminster Cathedral (cond. Simon Johnson), Tom Kimura, Piatti Quartet (supported by Richard Thomas Foundation), Noriko Ogawa, JAM on the marsh, Presteigne Festival, Mark van de Wiel/Brodsky Quartet, and enSEmble 26. A cello concerto for Guy Johnston and BBC Symphony Orchestra was recently confirmed for 2024, and a CD of his recent music for string quartet is due for release by the Piatti Quartet in the near future.
His works are published by Ricordi (UMPG), Boosey and Hawkes, Chromium Music Group, as well as being self-published. He is represented by Naomi Belshaw (see Contact).