Joseph Phibbs attended the Purcell School, London, from 1988 to 1992, where he studied composition with Param Vir. He continued his education at King’s College, London, and graduated with First Class Honors in 1995. He was subsequently appointed Assistant Lecturer in Composition at King’s, while studying for two years with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, after receiving a British Academy Award. In 1993 he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Britten-Pears Contemporary Music Course at Aldeburgh, where he studied with Colin Matthews and Magnus Lindberg. It was here that he also helped found the new-music group Ensemble Corrente. He completed a Master’s degree in composition at King’s in 1996. Following graduation, he spent a year writing incidental music for a number of professional theater productions in and around London, before starting the doctoral program in composition at Cornell University, where he is studying with Steven Stucky.

Phibbs has been commissioned and performed by a variety of ensembles and artists, including Lontano, the Endymion Ensemble, the New London Children’s Choir, and Jane Manning. Several of his works have been broadcast, including Soirée, written for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Vox, commissioned for the 1997 Aldeburgh Festival. Last year he was commissioned to write a short piece for the London Sinfonietta’s Thirtieth Anniversary Concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, and he is currently writing a piece for publication by Faber Music, due to be premiered by the London Sinfonietta, under Oliver Knussen, in 2000.

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