Joseph Phibbs

Joseph Phibbs studied at The Purcell School, King's College London, and Cornell University, and his teachers have included Param Vir, Harrison Birtwistle and Steven Stucky. His works have been performed by leading ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra (Washington). Much of his output has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and he has received commissions from the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, and Bath festivals. He has also written for the theatre, scoring for a number of productions at the Wolsey Theatre (Ipswich), Sadlers Wells, Setagaya Theatre (Tokyo) and The Globe.

Large-scale works include In Camera (BBC SO/ Slatkin), Lumina (BBC SO/ Slatkin, 2003 Last Night of the Proms), Tenebrae (St Albans Bach Choir/ Andrew Lucas), Shruti (LSO/ Petrenko), Rainland (in collaboration with Stephen Plaice), and The Spiralling Night, premiered by NYWE under Phillip Scott at the 2007 WASBE conference. His largest chamber work to date, The Canticle of the Rose, was premiered at Wigmore Hall by Lisa Milne and the Belcea Quartet, and shortlisted for the 2006 RPS Chamber Music Prize. Other chamber works include FLEX (a joint RPS/BBC commission, written for the 2007 City of London Festival), Personnages for Nicholas Daniel, Arc de Soleil for clarinet and piano, premiered by Sarah Williamson at Wigmore Hall in 2008, and The Silence at the Song's End, a song cycle for soprano and string quartet based on poems by Nicholas Heiney, written for the 2008 Burnham Market Festival.

Recent commissions include a clarinet concerto for Sarah Williamson and the Orchestra of the Swan, a work for the English Piano Trio's 20th Anniversary Concert, a development commission for a chamber opera (Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre), and a setting of Psalm 98 for choir and orchestra, commissioned by the Bachakademie Stuttgart to mark the Mendelssohn bicentenary. A work combining school choirs with the Britten-Pears Chamber Choir has been commissioned for performance at Snape Maltings in the autumn of 2010, and he will be Composer-in-Residence at the Presteigne Festival in 2011. Commissions for 2011-12 include a percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie (Cheltenham Festival 2011), a large-scale orchestral work for the Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia (2012), a concerto for harp and strings for David Watkins, and an orchestral work for the Purcell's School 5oth Anniversary Concert (Queen Elizabeth Hall,2012).

Since 2003 Phibbs has combined his composing career with the editing and promoting of Britten's music, and he is a director of the Britten Estate. He was appointed to teach composition at Wells Cathedral School in 2008 and is currently a visiting member of staff at The Purcell School and King's College London.