Joseph Phibbs


Joseph Phibbs[] 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, for private sponsors, and for the BBC, 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 awards, including a British Composer Award, and a Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award. Musicians performing his work include Evelyn Glennie, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, and the Belcea Quartet.
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Musical training

Joseph Phibbs was born in London, the son of actors Giles Phibbs and Mary Gillingham. 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 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 to 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, with a number of unaccompanied choral works published by Boosey & Hawkes.
In 2024 the Nimbus label released recordings of Phibbs's String Quartets No 2, 3 and 4, performed by the Piatti Quartet. The Piatti Quartet previously recorded the String Quartet No 1, which was written for them.

Works

See #References for premières.

Orchestral

  • Soirée.
  • Dream of a Summer Night.
  • In Camera.
  • Lumina.
  • The Dawn Breakers.
  • Shruti,..
  • Night Interludes..
  • Rivers to the Sea..
  • Partita for Orchestra, dedicated to the memory of Steven Stucky..

Concertante

  • Concertino for clarinet and strings, solo clarinet and string orchestra with harp..
  • Bar Veloce, solo percussion and orchestra..
  • Towards Purcell, concertante for oboe, horn, harp and orchestra..
  • Datcha Savoyarde – Evian Variations, solo cello with orchestra..
  • Notturno, solo harp with orchestra..
  • Clarinet Concerto, for clarinet and orchestra..

Instrumental ensemble

  • Night Dances, for cello, clarinet and piano.
  • Cayuga, mixed chamber ensemble..
  • Trio Semplice, trio for violin, cello and piano..
  • Ritual Songs and Blessings, for oboe, clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, piano.
  • La Noche Arrolladora, harpsichord with wind ensemble.
  • The Village of Birds, wind and string septet.
  • Split Screen, wind band..
  • Agea , for string quartet.
  • The Spiralling Night, wind ensemble.
  • Flex, quartet for flute, violin, cello and piano..
  • Cossax, symphonic wind ensemble..
  • Quartettino, string quartet..
  • Festival Fanfare, brass quintet..
  • String Quartet no. 1..
  • String Quartet no. 2..
  • String Quartet no. 3..

Instrumental duo and solo

  • Fantasia, duo for violin and piano.
  • Tango Rouge, duo for bassoon and piano.
  • Spiraling, duo for violin and marimba.
  • Fanfares for Harry, duo for clarinet and marimba.
  • Light Remains, four movements for solo piano.
  • Crimson Joy, duo for trumpet and piano.
  • Personnages, solo for oboe..
  • Notturno , duo for violin and piano.
  • Arc de Soleil, duo for clarinet and piano..
  • Sonatine, duo for cello and piano.
  • Guitar Suite, solo guitar.
  • Serenade for Two Guitars..
  • Suite for solo violin, solo violin.
  • Letters from Warsaw, duo for viola and piano..

Songs and song-cycles

  • Canticle of the Rose, high soprano with string quartet. .
  • The Silence at the Song's End Song-cycle, soprano and string quartet..
  • The Moon's Funeral, Song, counter-tenor and piano..
  • From Shore to Shore Song-cycle, guitar and counter-tenor..
  • Pierrot, Song, soprano, recorder and piano..
  • Shades of Night, Songs, tenor and piano...
  • On a Deserted Shore, Song-cycle, baritone & piano..
  • Moon Songs, Six songs, soprano, recorder and piano...
  • Night and Silence – Scena from A Midsummer Night's Dream –, high soprano, tenor, baritone and piano..

Choral

  • Ave verum corpus, Soprano with SATB.
  • Rainland, Choral drama, libretto by Stephen Plaice..
  • Levedi, flour of alle thing, SATB..
  • Tenebrae, Cantata. Soprano, chorus, small orchestra and chamber choir...
  • Run slowly, horses of the night, Choir and piano.
  • Suffolk Chanteys, Chamber choir, wind and percussion..
  • In excelsis gloria, two-part upper voices, with organ, harp or piano..
  • Gaudeamus omnes, Introit for the feast of All Saints, SSA, a cappella.. Rearranged, SSATB, for Exon Singers.
  • Sanctus, Chorus, a cappella.
  • Modyr, whyt as lyly flour, Carol, SATB, a cappella.
  • Shadows of Sleep, Choral work for trebles, SATB, percussion and piano.
  • Salve Regina, Motet, SSAATTB..
  • Choral Songs of Homage, SATB with piano...
  • Lullay, lullay, thou lytil child, SATB soloists with mixed choir SSATB, a cappella..
  • Missa Brevis, Ordinary of Latin Mass, unaccompanied upper voices in 3 parts.
  • Night Songs, 3 track EP recorded with London Voices.

Chamber opera

  • Juliana..