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At the age of six, David Brandon
Phillips began the formal study of music in Old Hickory, Tennessee. He
began performing in the first grade, playing for school assemblies,
church, PTA meetings and "talent shows". By the age of ten he was
composing and performing his own compositions. Some of his early
compositions has fanciful titles such as "Washing the Hog on Tuesday on
the Farm", "The Intoxicated Witch", "The Little Haunted Doll House"
etc., etc.. By the age of twelve he entered various festivals and
competitions sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs and the
National Music Teachers Association. He won several national awards
including the Charles Ives Scholarship, The Laura K. Wilson Memorial
Piano Award and the Fred Waring Award for his compositions.
After studying privately in Nashville, Tennessee with James Sherrill,
Phillips majored in music in college and received the Bachelor of Music
degree in Piano Performance from George Peabody College under the
guidance of Lucien Stark. His graduate study at the University of
Michigan included two Master's degrees, one in piano performance, the
other in composition. His compositions teachers were Gilbert Trythall at
Peabody and Pulitzer Prize winning composers Ross Lee Finney and William
Bolcom at the University of Michigan. He also received the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan under the direction
of well-known concert artist Gyorgy Sandor.
Phillips appears frequently in solo recitals, sometimes including some
of his own compositions. His ability as a lecturer, adjudicator and
clinician are highly acclaimed and he performs often in a variety of
chamber music ensembles. In addition to a growing schedule of
performances in various parts of the country and his teaching position
at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, Phillips makes a point to
give free concerts at schools, hospitals and homes for senior citizens.
For the centennial celebration of the composer’s birthday, Phillips
performed all nine of the solo piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofieff. He
also released a video tape of the Complete Chopin Etudes which has sold
internationally. He has had a number of his orchestral and wind ensemble
compositions performed by such groups as the George Peabody College
Orchestra, the Little Rock Symphony, The Knoxville Symphony and the
Albany Symphony Orchestra. He has had four substantial compositions for
wind ensemble, including three for piano and wind ensemble performed by
the Radford University Wind Ensemble. He has also written music for
ballet that was produced at Radford University with set design by
Dorothy Gillespie and music for some of his colleagues in the Music
Department including Clarity James, soprano and Martin Irving, violist. |
