Philip Herbert

Having studied music in Britain and the USA to postgraduate level, Philip Herbert has enjoyed a portfolio career, across music education teaching up to University level, performing, writing for publication, contributing to broadcast programmes for BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4, as well as writing music for film, concert music for various ensembles, small and larger, as well as being a panellist, creating projects/workshops for young people, in collaboration with some of Britain’s finest musicians.

Philip has had his music performed by various ensembles such as London Mozart Players, the Philharmonia, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the BBC Singers, Orchestra of the Swan, the Sphinx Virtuosi and Chineke! Orchestra to name a few. More recent musical performances of his music include an arrangement of ‘Sometimes I feel like a motherless child’ for solo flute, soprano and chorus, which was sung by the BBC Singers in a broadcast of a concert that took place in 2017, for BBC Radio 3 in February 2018. Philip was written music for a film, ‘The Future’, directed by Enrico Poli, where the film was awarded first prize  in the Italian film festival, Visione Italiane, under the category Visione Acquatiche (January 2017). ‘Elegy: in memoriam Stephen Lawrence’ has been performed and recorded by London Mozart Players, Chineke! Orchestra on the NMC Recordings label - as well as performed at the Southbank QEH in 2015 and 2019: including the Sphinx Virtuosi on tour across the USA and at Carnegie Hall, New York (Autumn 2019 - Spring 2020). The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will also perform this piece in September 2020. ‘Ballare To Dance’, is a project that was commissioned for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cultural Olympiad in the East Midlands, celebrating internationalism and the Olympic Games. His ‘Suite for Solo Steel Pan and Strings’ and 'Mantra for an Athlete’ were key works in a project that embraced music from around the world.

Philip has been a panellist in the festival ‘…the rest is noise’ with Candace Allen, Paul Gambaccini and Scott Stroman (March 2013) plus a biographical outline of Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s life, in ‘Revisiting Samuel’ for the London Literature Festival’ October 2014, at the Southbank Centre. He has contributed biographies of Black Classical Composers for the OUP publication, The Oxford Companion to Black British History, as well as recently having his suite for oboe and piano, ‘Silent Aria’ in four movements, published by Novello/Hal Leonard.

Philip was a contributing expert to BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ presented by Julian Joseph (December 2008). For BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, Philip has accompanied the Violinist, Chris Rogers, in William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano, (March 2007) to promote the project Philip devised called, ‘Lost Chords: Using Songs.’ He has been commissioned to write a piece for a solo instrument for the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary, BBC Postcards and to contribute to EMI’s ‘Sparkle and Burn' album. In 2021, he has been commissioned to write a new work for the Spitalfields Festival.

Biography

Having studied music in Britain and the USA to postgraduate level, Philip Herbert has enjoyed a portfolio career, across music education teaching up to University level, performing, writing for publication, contributing to broadcast programmes for BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4, as well as writing music for film, concert music for various ensembles, small and larger, as well as being a panellist, creating projects/workshops for young people, in collaboration with some of Britain’s finest musicians.

Philip has had his music performed by various ensembles such as London Mozart Players, the Philharmonia, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the BBC Singers, Orchestra of the Swan, the Sphinx Virtuosi and Chineke! Orchestra to name a few. More recent musical performances of his music include an arrangement of ‘Sometimes I feel like a motherless child’ for solo flute, soprano and chorus, which was sung by the BBC Singers in a broadcast of a concert that took place in 2017, for BBC Radio 3 in February 2018. Philip was written music for a film, ‘The Future’, directed by Enrico Poli, where the film was awarded first prize  in the Italian film festival, Visione Italiane, under the category Visione Acquatiche (January 2017). ‘Elegy: in memoriam Stephen Lawrence’ has been performed and recorded by London Mozart Players, Chineke! Orchestra on the NMC Recordings label - as well as performed at the Southbank QEH in 2015 and 2019: including the Sphinx Virtuosi on tour across the USA and at Carnegie Hall, New York (Autumn 2019 - Spring 2020). The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will also perform this piece in September 2020. ‘Ballare To Dance’, is a project that was commissioned for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cultural Olympiad in the East Midlands, celebrating internationalism and the Olympic Games. His ‘Suite for Solo Steel Pan and Strings’ and 'Mantra for an Athlete’ were key works in a project that embraced music from around the world.

Philip has been a panellist in the festival ‘…the rest is noise’ with Candace Allen, Paul Gambaccini and Scott Stroman (March 2013) plus a biographical outline of Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s life, in ‘Revisiting Samuel’ for the London Literature Festival’ October 2014, at the Southbank Centre. He has contributed biographies of Black Classical Composers for the OUP publication, The Oxford Companion to Black British History, as well as recently having his suite for oboe and piano, ‘Silent Aria’ in four movements, published by Novello/Hal Leonard.

Philip was a contributing expert to BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ presented by Julian Joseph (December 2008). For BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, Philip has accompanied the Violinist, Chris Rogers, in William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano, (March 2007) to promote the project Philip devised called, ‘Lost Chords: Using Songs.’ He has been commissioned to write a piece for a solo instrument for the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary, BBC Postcards and to contribute to EMI’s ‘Sparkle and Burn' album. In 2021, he has been commissioned to write a new work for the Spitalfields Festival.

Compilations with this composer

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Spark Catchers

NMC Recordings

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