Philip was born in Somerset in 1970, and received his early musical training as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, and a Music Scholar at Charterhouse.
After a period of study at the Royal Academy of Music, he held organ scholarships at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and St. John’s College, Cambridge. During his time at the university, he conducted the New Cambridge Singers and the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra.
After some further study in organ and conducting at the Vienna Musikhochschule, Philip spent two years at the Juilliard School in New York, where he worked as Assistant Conductor of the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra, and also gained his Masters degree in Orchestral Conducting.
As a recitalist, he has toured Europe, Canada and the United States, and in 1995 he won the Royal College of Organists Performer of the Year competition.
Since returning to the UK, Philip has worked as a repetiteur for both English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, and conducted the British première of Anna Amalia’s opera, Erwin und Elmire, for the Cambridge University Opera Society. In 1998 he was invited to become Acting Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey, and subsequently took up the position of Assistant Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral. He became conductor of Southern Voices in January 2000.
On July 28th 2000, he performed the complete organ works of J.S.Bach in Winchester Cathedral over a 24-hour period (to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death). He also conducted performances of The Threepenny Opera in Winchester Prison for Pimlico Opera, and in summer 2001, Philip worked as Assistant Conductor of The Marriage of Figaro for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
In September 2002, Philip took up the position of Organist and Director of Music at Lichfield Cathedral, where he conducts the Cathedral Choir and the Cathedral Special Choir. He has recently recorded his first solo CD (Piping Hot) on the Lichfield organ, and his first CD with the choir of Lichfield Cathedral.
