UPCOMING, NOW, & PAST Musical Activities
Now & Upcoming
March 11, 2026
Wednesday March 11, 2026 the American Composers Orchestra will present the world premiere of the first two movements of my piece We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident at Carnegie Hall. We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident highlights the idea of freedom and its manifestations in the physical, spiritual, intellectual, and imaginative for Black Americans throughout the history of the United States—how a “speculative knowledge of freedom would establish the vision of what might be, even if unrealizable within the prevailing terms of order” and that desire of ‘what might be’ was, and continues to be, actualized as resistance to the strictures of life within the country’s systemic inequalities and inequities. (Saidiya Hartman. Scenes of Subjection (25th-anniversary edition). Preface xxxi.) The work is a co-commission by The American Composers Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, and will be published by Boosey & Hawkes. The work will also feature video by Malik Isasis, partly funded by a 2025 NYSCA grant.
Past
February 8, 2025
On Saturday, February 8th at 1pm for the Second Saturday Seminar Series at the La Plata County Historical Society's Animas Museum in Durango, Colorado. I gave the first public discussion about the second opera in the 1619 cycle, Till Paths Be Wrought Through Wilds, as well as a general overview of the entire cycle. The hour long Zoom can be viewed/listened to below or by clicking this link.
January 15, 2025
Pianist Lara Downes' new album This Land concert release performance will be at Joe's Pub in New York City. She will perform selections from the album, including my piece "Never Has Been Yet." The piece features selections from the poem Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes and will be narrated by Lara herself! Information about tickets can be found at https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2024/l/lara-downes/
Fall 2024
A Public Call for Stories!
We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident is a four movement composition commissioned by and for the American Composers Orchestra. The composition is the first in a series of orchestral, choral, and chamber works which, while tied to the various themes of his eight-opera 1619 cycle, will also represent distinct, independent addendums and companions to the operas. We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident highlights the various ideas of freedom for Black Americans and how the desire of ‘what could be’ is actualized as resistance to the strictures of Black life within the country’s systemic inequalities and inequities. The work’s theme of freedom is an expansion of the focus of the Reconstruction opera, the second one in the 1619 cycle, but is not directly related to the opera.
“The Great Silence,” the first movement, is inspired by Black-owned leisure spaces of the late 19th century through the 1970s, and how Black Americans would gather within nature to “not only be healed of the detrimental effects of city life” but “would also experience a soothing balm for the wounds of life under segregation.” “Stealing Away,” the second movement, is inspired by those places internal and external where one goes to understand the larger world and themselves in it. For the composition the ACO is helping me with a call for stories to help in the creation of the composition. I am looking for stories, anecdotes, remembrances, photographs, memorabilia, etc. about various get away places/cities/resorts you and/or family visited or places within your community (parks/neighborhoods/yard/porch that provided a relaxing respite away from normal day-to-day life. More details and how to submit go to https://www.americancomposers.org/earshot-composer-incubator/call-for-submissions-new-work-by-joe-philips-jr
📸: Gulfside Assembly, Gulf Coast of Mississippi, early 20th century. Courtesy of Hancock Historical Society
We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident is a four movement composition commissioned by and for the American Composers Orchestra. The composition is the first in a series of orchestral, choral, and chamber works which, while tied to the various themes of his eight-opera 1619 cycle, will also represent distinct, independent addendums and companions to the operas. We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident highlights the various ideas of freedom for Black Americans and how the desire of ‘what could be’ is actualized as resistance to the strictures of Black life within the country’s systemic inequalities and inequities. The work’s theme of freedom is an expansion of the focus of the Reconstruction opera, the second one in the 1619 cycle, but is not directly related to the opera.
“The Great Silence,” the first movement, is inspired by Black-owned leisure spaces of the late 19th century through the 1970s, and how Black Americans would gather within nature to “not only be healed of the detrimental effects of city life” but “would also experience a soothing balm for the wounds of life under segregation.” “Stealing Away,” the second movement, is inspired by those places internal and external where one goes to understand the larger world and themselves in it. For the composition the ACO is helping me with a call for stories to help in the creation of the composition. I am looking for stories, anecdotes, remembrances, photographs, memorabilia, etc. about various get away places/cities/resorts you and/or family visited or places within your community (parks/neighborhoods/yard/porch that provided a relaxing respite away from normal day-to-day life. More details and how to submit go to https://www.americancomposers.org/earshot-composer-incubator/call-for-submissions-new-work-by-joe-philips-jr
📸: Gulfside Assembly, Gulf Coast of Mississippi, early 20th century. Courtesy of Hancock Historical Society
2024 (and 2026)
Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. is a 2025-2026 CoLABoratory fellow with the American Composers Orchestra, and has been selected for a new piece (title TBD) commissioned as the first in a series of orchestral and chamber works to be composed as companions and offshoots to his 1619 opera cycle. In tandem, he will write a work for youth orchestra. For this piece, Phillips focuses on the Black-owned vacation spots and leisure spaces of the Jim Crow era, largely forgotten today, that provided Black Americans with needed retreats from the everyday stresses of segregation and discrimination, giving them space to experience the renewing effects of the beach or countryside. His educational module combines historical teachings on land theft and exploitation with works by Black composers that illuminate Black Americans’ bonds with nature. The youth orchestra composition, The Great Silence, will premiere in 2024; the multi movement professional composition, which The Great Silence is the first movement, will premiere in New York City in Spring of 2026.
Both compositions will be published by Boosey and Hawkes.
Both compositions will be published by Boosey and Hawkes.
September 2024
My string quartet Shibboleths is now available from Alias Press distributed by Theodore Presser.
The work was originally written for the string quartet Invoke and commissioned by the NextNOW Fest and premiered in September 2015.
The work was originally written for the string quartet Invoke and commissioned by the NextNOW Fest and premiered in September 2015.
August 20, 2024
The second opera in my 1619 cycle was awarded a 2024 MAP Fund award! The opera (title TBD) is based in the Reconstruction period of the United States and centered on the intersection of freedom between Blacks, Indigenous, and white settlers in late 19th century Colorado. The grant is to help support a production or a concert performance of the opera.
August 23, 2024
My solo piano composition "Never Has Been Yet" will be a part of pianist Lara Downes' new album This Land. Originally commissioned by Lara in 2016, this will be the composition's recorded premiere! The piece features selections from the poem Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes and will be narrated by Lara herself! "This Land centers George Gershwin’s vision of the 'musical kaleidoscope of America' within a full album that represents many different versions of being and becoming American, with works by Margaret Bonds, Arturo O’Farrill, Michael Begay, Kian Ravaei, Samora Pinderhughes and others set into a multi-dimensional musical collage that interweaves archival and environmental sound artifacts to trace a broad and diverse American landscape."
June 27, 2024
The Grammy-award winning choir, The Crossing, will perform "The People Get Tired of Dying" from the opening scene of The Grey Land as part of their Month of Moderns series which "form a platform for our deep dive into the Now, moving from the gulf where oil is spilled, to the prairie that laments the farewells of plants and people, to the mountains where life and relationships are pondered, to the city full of guns, and finally to Jerusalem, home to beauty and to sorrow."
September 2023-June 2024
I'm a Mary Mackall Gwinn Hodder Fellow at Princeton University for the 2023-2024 academic year! I'm very excited to join cartoonist and designer Kayla E., choreographer Moriah Evans, theater artist Modesto ‘Flako’ Jimenez, and conceptual artist Charisse Pearlina Weston as Fellows. I am honored to join the esteemed past Hodder Fellows such as MacArthur writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah), Pulitzer writer Anthony Doerr (All the Light We Cannot See), Pulitzer AND MacArthur poet Natalie Diaz (Postcolonial Love Poem), playwright Danai Gurira (Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever 🙅🏾), and trumpeter/composer Amir ElSaffar, as well as the other past Fellows.
My Fellowship year will be spent doing more research on the 1619 opera cycle through meeting and talking with various historians and faculty, both at Princeton University and beyond, and beginning to compose the next two operas in the eight-opera cycle.
My Fellowship year will be spent doing more research on the 1619 opera cycle through meeting and talking with various historians and faculty, both at Princeton University and beyond, and beginning to compose the next two operas in the eight-opera cycle.
February 8, 2024
On Thursday February 8, 2024 five scenes from my mono-opera The Grey Land will be performed at the Colour of Music Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Conducted by Brandon Keith Brown and the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, soprano Rebecca L Hargrove will sing her role as Mother from the mono-opera.
February 4, 2024
The Crossing's album Carols after a Plague, which includes my commissioned piece "The Undisappeared," is nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Choral Performance" category! The 66th Grammy Awards are February 4th, 2024.
January 4-27, 2024
I wrote music for this wonderful new production by Concrete Temple Theatre.
The show premieres January 4-27, 2024 at Dixon Place in New York City.
Ernie’s Secret Life is an episodic odyssey, fusing ever-changing puppetry stagecraft with humor, music, and a raw understanding of our profound collective reality. Sparked by the isolation and turmoil of our time, Ernie’s Secret Life is a story of discovery for all. A man fearing something has happened to his son, builds a canoe and secretly sets off to find him. What he finds instead – is himself. Powered by a wondrous landscape-in-motion, Ernie’s Secret Life is a play about escaping and then finding your way; a celebration of how we become who we want to be.
Tickets are here: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35526/production/1184927?performanceId=11390068
The show premieres January 4-27, 2024 at Dixon Place in New York City.
Ernie’s Secret Life is an episodic odyssey, fusing ever-changing puppetry stagecraft with humor, music, and a raw understanding of our profound collective reality. Sparked by the isolation and turmoil of our time, Ernie’s Secret Life is a story of discovery for all. A man fearing something has happened to his son, builds a canoe and secretly sets off to find him. What he finds instead – is himself. Powered by a wondrous landscape-in-motion, Ernie’s Secret Life is a play about escaping and then finding your way; a celebration of how we become who we want to be.
Tickets are here: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35526/production/1184927?performanceId=11390068
September 17, 2023
On Sunday September 17th at Roulette in Brooklyn Numinous will perform a special concert: the first half, the premiere of four new works from composers George Brandon, Anthony Branker, Bob Goldberg, and Steven Swartz; the second half, excerpts from So Far Behind Now Because of Then, the first opera in Joseph C Phillips Jr's 1619 opera cycle--sopranos Rebecca L Hargrove and Ariadne Greif will be singing. Click the below to watch recorded video from the live-stream!
May 10, 2023
Premiere of new commissioned Guitar quartet, "The Poet Dreams of the Mountain" by the students of Adelphi University, Jay Sorce director.
December 9, 2022
The Grammy-award winning choir The Crossing released the recording of their project Carols after a Plaque on New Focus Records. Along with my piece "The Undisappeared", the recording features new works from Leila Adu, Alex Berko, Edith Canat de Chizy, Viet Cuong, Samantha Fernando, Vanessa Lann, Mary Jane Leach, Shara Nova, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Nina Shekhar, Tyshawn Sorey, LJ White. All the commissions are addressing the topic of the pandemic through each composers idea of a carol.
July 17- August 1, 2022
For two weeks in July 2022 this coming summer I will be participating in the Composing in the Wilderness program in Alaska. The program is “…in its ninth year, this unusual field course is offered by the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in collaboration with Alaska Geographic and the National Park Service. It is led by adventurer-composer Dr. Stephen Lias. Working with experienced guides, naturalists, and scientists, we take composers into the backcountry of Alaska's wilderness [in Denali National Park] and provide them with an intense and immersive adventure. With this as their inspiration, the composers then have the opportunity to compose original chamber music that is premiered by top-notch contemporary music performers on staff at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.”
June 5-11, 2022
My first time to Alaska was filled with a whole week of amazing people, gorgeous scenery and nature (saw bald eagles soaring and dipping the Kachemak Bay for fish, cranes, thrushes, seals, moose, porcupine, otters), lots of midnight sun, and three wonderful performances of my music June 9, 10, & 11 in Homer, Kenai, and Anchorage with Wild Shore New Music. A highlight was the Friday June 10 show at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer which was broadcasted live throughout the Frontier state on Alaska Public Radio’s KBBI AM 880.
It was 7 days full of rehearsals and performances with incredible musicians from Alaska & New York/New Jersey: Mannfried Funk (cello), Sandra Cox (clarinet), Katie Cox (flutes), Andie Tanning (violin), Kade Bissell (percussion), Scott Hansen (piano), James Moore (electric guitar), Laura Saks (viola), and Sunrose Winslow (voice/narrator). Wild Shore New Music did beautifully perform these compositions of mine: “Kelip-Kelip”, “Never Has Been Yet”, “The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness” and with me conducting also “The Distance of the Moon”, “Unlimited” (from Changing Same), and “The Polar Express.”
It was 7 days full of rehearsals and performances with incredible musicians from Alaska & New York/New Jersey: Mannfried Funk (cello), Sandra Cox (clarinet), Katie Cox (flutes), Andie Tanning (violin), Kade Bissell (percussion), Scott Hansen (piano), James Moore (electric guitar), Laura Saks (viola), and Sunrose Winslow (voice/narrator). Wild Shore New Music did beautifully perform these compositions of mine: “Kelip-Kelip”, “Never Has Been Yet”, “The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness” and with me conducting also “The Distance of the Moon”, “Unlimited” (from Changing Same), and “The Polar Express.”
March 25 & March 26, 2022
The San Francisco Symphony will be performing my piece "To Kyoto" as part of their SoundBox series. "Intense, beautiful, and totally unpredictable, our wildly popular—and wildly unique—SoundBox series delivers expanded live music experiences that push the envelope in fearless ways. Composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey curates this final SoundBox show of the 2021–22 season." Featuring not only my piece "To Kyoto" but also works by Tyshawn, Alvin Singleton, George E Lewis, Tania León, Courtney Bryan, and Tyson Gholston Davis. Tickets for March 25 and March 26 performances can be found at the links.
|
|
January 27, 2022
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein will open her Meany Center for the Performing Arts recital on January 27, 2022 at the University of Washington in Seattle with my composition “Never Has Been Yet.” Taylor Freeman will be the narrator. Simone will also be performing Richard Dainelpour’s “An American Mosaic” from her recent GRAMMY-nominated album of the same name.
December 12, 17, & 19, 2021
Carols for a Plague
The Crossing choir.
12 world premieres by 12 composers:
Leila Adu, Vanessa Lann, Alex Berko, Edith Canat de Chizy, Samantha Fernando, Mary Jane Leach, Shara Nova,
Joseph C Phillips Jr (me!), Nina Shekar, Tyshawn Sorey, Viet Cuong, LJ White.
From The Crossing:
WHAT IS A CAROL?
Brief, singable song, for choirs of varying sizes, often on themes of advent, anticipation, rebirth; a story, recounting an event, that stays with us and becomes a part of our culture.
WHAT IS A PLAGUE?
Can also be brief, or not; it affects great numbers of people, causing physical destruction and emotional distress. Pandemics, racism, climate change, gun violence, homelessness, diasporas – these are Plagues. Isolation and loneliness, too.
Carols after a Plague: a collection from many composers new to The Crossing, all addressing the topic of Plague through their idea of Carol. A concert embracing unprecedented breadth of style and perspective; a history, as we emerge.
For tickets go here:
December 12:
Delkelboum Concert Hall, Clarice Center, College Park, MD 3pm
December 17:
Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center at UPenn, Philadelphia 7pm
December 19:
Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia 7pm
(includes a pre-talk and post-concert reception with the composers)
The Crossing choir.
12 world premieres by 12 composers:
Leila Adu, Vanessa Lann, Alex Berko, Edith Canat de Chizy, Samantha Fernando, Mary Jane Leach, Shara Nova,
Joseph C Phillips Jr (me!), Nina Shekar, Tyshawn Sorey, Viet Cuong, LJ White.
From The Crossing:
WHAT IS A CAROL?
Brief, singable song, for choirs of varying sizes, often on themes of advent, anticipation, rebirth; a story, recounting an event, that stays with us and becomes a part of our culture.
WHAT IS A PLAGUE?
Can also be brief, or not; it affects great numbers of people, causing physical destruction and emotional distress. Pandemics, racism, climate change, gun violence, homelessness, diasporas – these are Plagues. Isolation and loneliness, too.
Carols after a Plague: a collection from many composers new to The Crossing, all addressing the topic of Plague through their idea of Carol. A concert embracing unprecedented breadth of style and perspective; a history, as we emerge.
For tickets go here:
December 12:
Delkelboum Concert Hall, Clarice Center, College Park, MD 3pm
December 17:
Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center at UPenn, Philadelphia 7pm
December 19:
Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia 7pm
(includes a pre-talk and post-concert reception with the composers)
October 22, 2021--November 5, 2022
The Grey Land has been submitted in the first round of voting for the Grammy Awards!
Any NARAS voting members, please consider in your voting for the 64th GRAMMY® award nominations:
The Grey Land
--Best Opera Recording
--Best Contemporary Classical Composition
--Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Rebecca L Hargrove, soprano
Kenneth Browning, narrator
Numinous, ensemble
Joseph C Phillips Jr, composer, conductor
For more information about The Grey Land go here
Any NARAS voting members, please consider in your voting for the 64th GRAMMY® award nominations:
The Grey Land
--Best Opera Recording
--Best Contemporary Classical Composition
--Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Rebecca L Hargrove, soprano
Kenneth Browning, narrator
Numinous, ensemble
Joseph C Phillips Jr, composer, conductor
For more information about The Grey Land go here
July/August 2021
August 2021
Stay Thirsty Magazine interviews with:
Joseph C Phillips Jr
"I’ve always said just because something has been done doesn’t mean that’s how it always has to be done. I think my life as a Black male in America has comfortably prepared me to live in a musical world that I am simultaneously both inside and outside of… and a freedom to use whatever style or genre as inspiration, incorporating them into my own personal voice, to create my own compositions."
https://staythirstymagazine.blogspot.com/p/joseph-c-phillips-jr-conversation.html
and
Rebecca L Hargrove
“I hope this work enlightens audiences to this aspect of the Black experience through a musical lens. Police brutality is not new to our society, but for many years it has been a Black issue instead of a human issue. I hope that our audience can gain empathy and understanding through the loss of our children and do what they can to help change our society.
If I hadn’t been exposed to trailblazing artists like Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and Denyce Graves, I wouldn't have fathomed being an opera singer. I hope that one day some young Black singer can see me and know that she belongs here too. This is why representation matters.”
https://staythirstymagazine.blogspot.com/p/rebecca-l-hargrove-five-questions.html
Stay Thirsty Magazine interviews with:
Joseph C Phillips Jr
"I’ve always said just because something has been done doesn’t mean that’s how it always has to be done. I think my life as a Black male in America has comfortably prepared me to live in a musical world that I am simultaneously both inside and outside of… and a freedom to use whatever style or genre as inspiration, incorporating them into my own personal voice, to create my own compositions."
https://staythirstymagazine.blogspot.com/p/joseph-c-phillips-jr-conversation.html
and
Rebecca L Hargrove
“I hope this work enlightens audiences to this aspect of the Black experience through a musical lens. Police brutality is not new to our society, but for many years it has been a Black issue instead of a human issue. I hope that our audience can gain empathy and understanding through the loss of our children and do what they can to help change our society.
If I hadn’t been exposed to trailblazing artists like Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and Denyce Graves, I wouldn't have fathomed being an opera singer. I hope that one day some young Black singer can see me and know that she belongs here too. This is why representation matters.”
https://staythirstymagazine.blogspot.com/p/rebecca-l-hargrove-five-questions.html
|
|
April 2021
Gramophone Magazine review
April 2021
April 2021
March 2021
The Absolute Sound
March 2021
4.5 out of 5 stars
March 2021
4.5 out of 5 stars
February 2021
|
|
January 2021
|
|
January 25, 2021
January 21, 2021
Photo by Mark Elzey
The PS321 Equity & Inclusion Committee welcomes Joseph C Phillips Jr to discuss his monoopera The Grey Land and a new work, an opera cycle 1619.
January 21, 2021
7:00 pm EST
Zoom
Can register for tickets at: www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-joe-phillips-composer-of-the-grey-land-tickets-133748919619
January 21, 2021
7:00 pm EST
Zoom
Can register for tickets at: www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-joe-phillips-composer-of-the-grey-land-tickets-133748919619
January 11, 2021
New Sounds
Program #4446
Top 10 of 2020
#4 The Grey Land
Program #4446
Top 10 of 2020
#4 The Grey Land
December 17, 2020
The New York Times
"The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020"
"The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020"
December 16, 2020
FIRST LOOK!: On Wednesday December 16th, 2020 I will broadcast a public table read from my forthcoming opera cycle 1619. The first opera in the cycle I'm currently working on is called "So Far Behind Because of Then" and you can read more about the 1619 opera cycle, as well as specifically information on "So Far Behind Now Because of Then,"including a link to the video of the table read here. The table read will feature sopranos Rebecca L Hargrove and Ariadne Grief as well as a chorus of actors (Arthur Lazdale, Stacey Linnartz, Peter Rini, Jeremy Rishe, Amy Lynn Stewart) reading three scenes from the opera; their will also be a Q & A with the other libretto writers for other operas in the cycle (Meshell Ndegeocello, Joseph C Phillips Jr, Kelley Rourke, Carl Hancock Rux). The broadcast will be available from December 16, 2020 until January 16, 2021.
Rebecca L Hargrove (top L), Arthur Lazdale, Stacey Linnartz, Peter Rini, Jeremy Rishe, Amy Lynn Stewart (top R)
Ariadne Grief (bottom L), Meshell Ndegeocello, Joseph C Phillips Jr, Kelley Rourke, Carl Hancock Rux (bottom R)
Ariadne Grief (bottom L), Meshell Ndegeocello, Joseph C Phillips Jr, Kelley Rourke, Carl Hancock Rux (bottom R)
December 15, 2020
December 1, 2020
The second video single for The Grey Land is out today! "The People get Tired of Dying" is scene 1 from the monoopera, with music by Joseph C Phillips Jr and performed by Numinous and video/story by Malik Isasis.
"My composition connects contemporary life's struggles with those of the ancestors--as Ta-Nehisi Coates describes as 'the vastness of black people across space-time.'"
I had already composed "The People Get Tired of Dying" when I approached director/writer Malik Isasis about creating a film using the themes I was exploring in The Grey Land. The visuals and story for this opening scene are a powerful overture to what is to come (and bookends with the final scene of the opera).
"My composition connects contemporary life's struggles with those of the ancestors--as Ta-Nehisi Coates describes as 'the vastness of black people across space-time.'"
I had already composed "The People Get Tired of Dying" when I approached director/writer Malik Isasis about creating a film using the themes I was exploring in The Grey Land. The visuals and story for this opening scene are a powerful overture to what is to come (and bookends with the final scene of the opera).
November 20, 2020
November 20, 2020
Numinous recording of my monoopera The Grey Land, order at Bandcamp
The Grey Land can be ordered at Bandcamp!
The Grey Land is "a story of a Black mother trying to survive the reality in this land that doesn’t fully see her continued hope: that the great American experiment will one day become a belonging place where anyone can dream of 'stillness and stars' free from fear and want; a place where the beautiful promise of happiness, liberty, and life may yet manifest true to finally include her family too." The Grey Land is at once intimately personal and an incisive commentary for our time as it examines "humanity and identity through the lens of the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power in American society."
As far back as 2011 I was beginning to read and research for an opera I wanted to create that dealt with the endemic injustice in the American system. And even as I was trying to finish the Changing Same album production in 2014, in preparation for the birth of a first child (because of course I wasn't going to have much time once the baby arrived!), I was already deep into researching & thinking about what the opera was going to be when the events of Ferguson, Missouri happened in that beautiful summer of nesting in upstate NY. My conflicting emotions—joy of anticipation married to the anxiety about the world our future child would inhabit—moved me to want to more directly address the systemic issues long plaguing the US, particularly for Black and brown people--and this was truly when The Grey Land opera concept was born.
This is our fourth Numinous album, the second for New Amsterdam Records. The album art and design is by Brock Lefferts.
The Grey Land is "a story of a Black mother trying to survive the reality in this land that doesn’t fully see her continued hope: that the great American experiment will one day become a belonging place where anyone can dream of 'stillness and stars' free from fear and want; a place where the beautiful promise of happiness, liberty, and life may yet manifest true to finally include her family too." The Grey Land is at once intimately personal and an incisive commentary for our time as it examines "humanity and identity through the lens of the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power in American society."
As far back as 2011 I was beginning to read and research for an opera I wanted to create that dealt with the endemic injustice in the American system. And even as I was trying to finish the Changing Same album production in 2014, in preparation for the birth of a first child (because of course I wasn't going to have much time once the baby arrived!), I was already deep into researching & thinking about what the opera was going to be when the events of Ferguson, Missouri happened in that beautiful summer of nesting in upstate NY. My conflicting emotions—joy of anticipation married to the anxiety about the world our future child would inhabit—moved me to want to more directly address the systemic issues long plaguing the US, particularly for Black and brown people--and this was truly when The Grey Land opera concept was born.
This is our fourth Numinous album, the second for New Amsterdam Records. The album art and design is by Brock Lefferts.
|
|
Scenes from Numinous recording sessions of The Grey Land @ Oktaven Studios, Mount Vernon, New York, Winter 2020
Photo credit: Joseph C Phillips Jr. (1, 2, 5); Donald Martinez (3); Juila Ross (4)
Photo credit: Joseph C Phillips Jr. (1, 2, 5); Donald Martinez (3); Juila Ross (4)
November 19, 2020
1619 opera cycle
I am honored to be one of the 2020 grantees for the Brooklyn Arts Fund for my next opera cycle, 1619. The Brooklyn Arts Council grant will allow me to begin work on the opera! Initially inspired by “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates and by the New York Times project, each opera in the cycle will reflect the predacity of American life—how this country "begins in Black plunder and white democracy, two features that are not contradictory but complementary" and how "virtually every institution with some degree of history in America, be it public, be it private, has a history of extracting wealth and resources out of the African-American community...that behind all of that oppression was actually theft." But the operas will also highlight the very human stories of Black and Brown joy, love, and resiliency in the face of that oppression, as well as the larger systemic forces of class and power and wealth that affect all levels and people in our society.
Each of the operas in the cycle will feature film and dance choreography and, like the 1619 Project itself, hope to show a number of consistent themes through a series of wide-ranging historical fictional narratives that will reflect the story of America. While I will write a couple of the librettos myself, I’ve also begun assembling a group of writers/poets (so far Kelley Rourke, Carl Hancock Rux, Meshell Ndegeocello) who will also be writing librettos for specific operas in the cycle as well.
The first table read from one of the operas in the cycle will be held on Zoom in mid-December (check the "News" section for details) and is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).
📸: by me in Rio de Janeiro!
Each of the operas in the cycle will feature film and dance choreography and, like the 1619 Project itself, hope to show a number of consistent themes through a series of wide-ranging historical fictional narratives that will reflect the story of America. While I will write a couple of the librettos myself, I’ve also begun assembling a group of writers/poets (so far Kelley Rourke, Carl Hancock Rux, Meshell Ndegeocello) who will also be writing librettos for specific operas in the cycle as well.
The first table read from one of the operas in the cycle will be held on Zoom in mid-December (check the "News" section for details) and is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).
📸: by me in Rio de Janeiro!
November 1, 2020
I wrote an article about my journey to mixed music, The Grey Land, my 1619 opera cycle, the Four Freedoms opera, and beyond.
October 20, 2020
The first video single for The Grey Land is out today! "The Sunken Place" is scene 12 from the monoopera, with music by Joseph C Phillips Jr and performed by Numinous and video by Xuan Zhang www.xuanfilms.com
"The sunken place" is this metaphor for the system that is suppressing the freedom of Black people."--Jordan Peele
As I was developing my monoopera The Grey Land, a story "that reflects today's truth: the unrelenting systemic injustice Black and brown communities endure," I came across director Jordan Peele's quote above, and I just knew I needed to find a place for his "sunken place" concept in my opera.
The visuals in Jordon Peele's Get Out film so beautifully depict the unmoored and unsettled feelings of one's constant metaphorical swimming in an atmosphere of oppression, and was something I wanted to capture some of in composing the music. I contacted visual artist Xuan Zhang (www.xuanfilms.com) and she came up with images that are both evocative and poignant, perfectly setting up the mood for this penultimate scene from The Grey Land.
The Grey Land album is released November 20, 2020 on New Amsterdam Records and you can pre-order at: numinous.bandcamp.com
© 2020 Numen Music/All Rights Reserved
"The sunken place" is this metaphor for the system that is suppressing the freedom of Black people."--Jordan Peele
As I was developing my monoopera The Grey Land, a story "that reflects today's truth: the unrelenting systemic injustice Black and brown communities endure," I came across director Jordan Peele's quote above, and I just knew I needed to find a place for his "sunken place" concept in my opera.
The visuals in Jordon Peele's Get Out film so beautifully depict the unmoored and unsettled feelings of one's constant metaphorical swimming in an atmosphere of oppression, and was something I wanted to capture some of in composing the music. I contacted visual artist Xuan Zhang (www.xuanfilms.com) and she came up with images that are both evocative and poignant, perfectly setting up the mood for this penultimate scene from The Grey Land.
The Grey Land album is released November 20, 2020 on New Amsterdam Records and you can pre-order at: numinous.bandcamp.com
© 2020 Numen Music/All Rights Reserved
October 1, 2020
The Sorce/Lodge duo (Andrea Lodge, piano & Jay Sorce, guitar) performed my composition "Scission" as part of ensemble mise-en Live streaming concert series, which you can watch here at 2:30pm EDT on October 1, 2020.
September 3, 2020
The pianist Chelsea Guo along with narrator Britnie Narcisse ensemble performing my solo piano piece "Never Has Been Yet" as part of the group Opus Illuminate online concert series. The composition was originally written for pianist Lara Downes in 2016 and while Lara performed an edited version, this performance from Opus Illuminate is the full (and official) version.
August 2020
"19" from Changing Same featured in the New York Times "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love 21st-Century Composers"
The Grey Land, an opera from Numinous Music on Vimeo.
The Grey Land opera Indiegogo fundraiser campaign is live! If you are able, I can use your financial support to help bring the album of my opera to the world this fall on New Amsterdam Records.
To read more about the opera & to contribute, go to: https://igg.me/at/thegreyland/x/21934041#/
To read more about the opera & to contribute, go to: https://igg.me/at/thegreyland/x/21934041#/
Video by Julia Ross
July 12, 2020
The Sorce/Lodge duo (Andrea Lodge, piano & Jay Sorce, guitar) performed my composition "Scission," which I composed for them, at the annual Nief Norf Summer Festival Marathon. This was the 10th anniversary of the Festival and because of the world-wide pandemic, was held completely online.
|
Excerpt of the Sorce/Lodge duo at Nief Norf Festival performing "Scission"
|
February 14, 2020
|
Highlights from the premiere performance at The Clarice on February 14, 2020
|
Scene from Act 1 Freedom of Speech "A Quiet Revolution"
Four Freedoms
Music and libretto by Joseph C. Phillips Jr.
Performed by Maryland Opera Studio Friday February 14, 2020 @ The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
Sarah Stembel, soprano (Commissioner 1)
Colin Doyle, tenor (Commissioner 2)
Four Freedoms
Music and libretto by Joseph C. Phillips Jr.
Performed by Maryland Opera Studio Friday February 14, 2020 @ The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
Sarah Stembel, soprano (Commissioner 1)
Colin Doyle, tenor (Commissioner 2)
Premiere of my new opera Four Freedoms
In President Roosevelt's State of the Union speech from 1941 he outlined "Four Freedoms" that everyone should experience and live, "everywhere in the world": Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear. Those ideals still resonated almost 80 years later as I wrote the words and story for my opera Four Freedoms, which I based on four contemporary topics (voter disenfranchisement, worship and discrimination, immigration, and climate change) that all tie together to illuminate how far away as a country, and a world, we are from living up to those ideals.
Four Freedoms
an opera
Music & libretto by Joseph C Phillips Jr
Commissioned by & performed by
The Maryland Opera Studio
(SOPRANOS: Sarah Stembel, Erin Ridge, Nora Griffin, Oznur Tuluoglu, Amanda Densmoor, Abigail Beerwat; MEZZO SOPRANOS Gal Kohev, Katherine Kincaid; TENOR: Colin Doyle; BARITONE/BASS: Christian Simmons, Collin Power)
Craig Kier, Director, Maryland Opera Studio
Amanda Consol, Director of Acting
Justina Lee, Principal Coach
Ashley Pollard, Studio Manager
Friday February 14, 2020
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
University of Maryland School of Music
FREE, but click here to register for the performance
In President Roosevelt's State of the Union speech from 1941 he outlined "Four Freedoms" that everyone should experience and live, "everywhere in the world": Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear. Those ideals still resonated almost 80 years later as I wrote the words and story for my opera Four Freedoms, which I based on four contemporary topics (voter disenfranchisement, worship and discrimination, immigration, and climate change) that all tie together to illuminate how far away as a country, and a world, we are from living up to those ideals.
Four Freedoms
an opera
Music & libretto by Joseph C Phillips Jr
Commissioned by & performed by
The Maryland Opera Studio
(SOPRANOS: Sarah Stembel, Erin Ridge, Nora Griffin, Oznur Tuluoglu, Amanda Densmoor, Abigail Beerwat; MEZZO SOPRANOS Gal Kohev, Katherine Kincaid; TENOR: Colin Doyle; BARITONE/BASS: Christian Simmons, Collin Power)
Craig Kier, Director, Maryland Opera Studio
Amanda Consol, Director of Acting
Justina Lee, Principal Coach
Ashley Pollard, Studio Manager
Friday February 14, 2020
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
University of Maryland School of Music
FREE, but click here to register for the performance
2020
The year 2020 is the 20th anniversary of Numinous
Numinous began in October 2000, with my first rehearsal, and took some years to develop into its present instrumentation. But the idea of having some kind of large ensemble that would play music that wasn't easily classifiable, was a concept developing in my mind almost four years before that first rehearsal. It really has been a long and winding road full of wonderful successes and some disappointments; but whether the experiences were positive or less than stellar, it all was full of much music I'm happy and proud to have created, performed with wonderful musicians and friends! And while there's still much to come with Numinous in future years, throughout this year I thought it would be fun to look back on twenty years of making music with Numinous. You can follow along on Instagram and Twitter (can follow me below and/or use #numinous20), and I might even throw in a few blog posts for old-time sake!
Numinous began in October 2000, with my first rehearsal, and took some years to develop into its present instrumentation. But the idea of having some kind of large ensemble that would play music that wasn't easily classifiable, was a concept developing in my mind almost four years before that first rehearsal. It really has been a long and winding road full of wonderful successes and some disappointments; but whether the experiences were positive or less than stellar, it all was full of much music I'm happy and proud to have created, performed with wonderful musicians and friends! And while there's still much to come with Numinous in future years, throughout this year I thought it would be fun to look back on twenty years of making music with Numinous. You can follow along on Instagram and Twitter (can follow me below and/or use #numinous20), and I might even throw in a few blog posts for old-time sake!
October 16, 2018
Concert, semi-staged premiere of monoopera
The Grey Land
Roulette
Brooklyn, NY
8:00 PM
Tickets $18 online; $25 at the door
Click here to Purchase
The Grey Land
Roulette
Brooklyn, NY
8:00 PM
Tickets $18 online; $25 at the door
Click here to Purchase
Photo by Jenny Wohrle
“… he made all the world…a vast grey land where neither night nor day was, peopled by strange men and women whom he could not understand, but with those lives he longed to mingle once before he went.” —Richard Wright, Native Son
"No moral code or ethical principle, no piece of scripture or holy teaching,
can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become."
—Matthew Desmond, Evicted
“… he made all the world…a vast grey land where neither night nor day was, peopled by strange men and women whom he could not understand, but with those lives he longed to mingle once before he went.” —Richard Wright, Native Son
"No moral code or ethical principle, no piece of scripture or holy teaching,
can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become."
—Matthew Desmond, Evicted
The Grey Land is a monoopera, which through the lens of one Black mother's experiences navigating American society with her son, explores universal themes of humanity and identity through the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power. The Grey Land ruminates and comments more specifically on the larger longstanding systemic societal, economic, and cultural issues the recent spate of police shootings and protests have brought to the wider public consciousness. The Grey Land is made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation and, in addition, is also supported by New Music USA. The composition will be recorded and released on New Amsterdam Records in Fall 2020.
Music/concept: Joseph C Phillips Jr
28-member Orchestral Ensemble: Numinous
Conductor: Joseph C Phillips Jr
Words: Joseph C Phillips Jr, Isaac Butler, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Frederick Douglass, Sonia Sotomayor, Mothers of the Movement, Carolyn Bryant Donham
Soprano soloist: Rebecca L. Hargrove
Narrator: Kenneth Browning
Dancer: Jay Bouey
Cello solo (recorded): Mariel Roberts
Video/Film: Malik Isasis, Xuan Zhang, and Ryan Booth
Choreography: Edisa Weeks
Electronics: Michael Hammond
(L) Rebecca Hargrove (Mother); (Top R) Kenneth Browning (Narrator/Son); (Middle R) Scene from film by Malik Isasis for The Grey Land; (Bottom R) Jay Bouey
May 19, 2018
New Music Gathering panel
New Amsterdam Records @ 10 years Oral History Panel
Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Boston, MA
New Amsterdam Records @ 10 years Oral History Panel
Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Boston, MA
May 22, 2017
Premiere of "Climb" for the Fieldston School 7th grade Band
Fieldston School
3901 Fieldston Road
Bronx, NY
7:30 pm
Fieldston School
3901 Fieldston Road
Bronx, NY
7:30 pm
March 7, 2018
Discussing The Grey Land with the American Composers Forum
December 2016
October 29, 2016
Pianist Lara Downes premieres and edited version of "Never Has Been Yet"
Jackson Hall Stage
Mondavi Center
Davis, California
https://www.mondaviarts.org/event/2016-17/lara-downes-piano
Jackson Hall Stage
Mondavi Center
Davis, California
https://www.mondaviarts.org/event/2016-17/lara-downes-piano
Lara premiering "Never Has Been Yet" at Mondavi Center
October 29, 2016
© 2016 Numen Music/BMI All Rights Reserved
October 29, 2016
© 2016 Numen Music/BMI All Rights Reserved
June 30-July 2, 2016
Performance of To Begin The World Over Again
Collaboration with Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dance
Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway
NYC
Collaboration with Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dance
Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway
NYC
February 2016
My forthcoming composition The Grey Land — a new music drama that explores themes of acceptance and identity through the intractable issues of race, class, and power in American society — was awarded a NewMusicUSA grant. Premiere will be Fall 2017. https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/the-grey-land/
December 2015
Changing Same discussed in Diary of a Mad Composer
December 9th, 2015
— George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail
December 9th, 2015
— George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail
Changing Same
Top 30 Favorite Classical/Art Music albums 2015
— George M. Wallace, A Fool in the Forest
Top 30 Favorite Classical/Art Music albums 2015
— George M. Wallace, A Fool in the Forest
November 27-December 13, 2015
The Bellagio Foundation Has Been Known To Make Me Cry
Concrete Temple Theatre Company production
HERE
145 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10013
Concrete Temple Theatre Company production
HERE
145 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10013
November 2015
Changing Same is on David Adler's November 2015 Top 10
October 2015
Changing Same featured in Rhapsody's Classical Diversity: Today's Voices in Composition October playlist
October 16, 2015
Sorce/Lodge Duo
premiering "Scission",
for Guitar and Piano
Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow Street
NYC
8:00 PM
with Iktus Combo,
featuring music by Christopher Cerrone, Charles Ives,
Elliot Cooper Cole, and Louis Andriessen
premiering "Scission",
for Guitar and Piano
Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow Street
NYC
8:00 PM
with Iktus Combo,
featuring music by Christopher Cerrone, Charles Ives,
Elliot Cooper Cole, and Louis Andriessen
September 2015
September 21, 2015
|
New Amsterdam Presents
Numinous & Will Mason Ensemble Joint CD release performance (Le) Poisson Rouge 158 Bleecker Street New York, NY 10012 Doors open at 6:00 pm 7:00 pm Numinous 8:15 pm Will Mason Ensemble Tickets at: http://lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/numinous-and-the-will-mason-ensemble-september-21st-2015/ www.newamrecords.com www.newampresents.org |
|
September 11, 2015
|
NextNow Fest
Gildenhorn Recital Hall University of Maryland-College Park 8:30 PM FREE Premiere of NextNow commission, Shibboleths Performed by Invoke String Quartet |
August 28, 2015
August 25, 2015
August 23, 2015
Interview with Rachel Martin for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. First aired August 23rd.
July 2015
|
Podcast Interview with George Grella from The Brooklyn Rail
https://soundcloud.com/rail-tracks/bk-rail-tracks-2015-078 (interview is at the beginning) |
|
June 23, 2015
First track from Changing Same, "19", featured on Bandcamp Weekly podcast show:
https://bandcamp.com/?g=rock&show=132
https://bandcamp.com/?g=rock&show=132
