Reviews

"Joseph C. Phillips Jr. creates music that sounds classical, funky and sometimes cinematic. ...The music that Joseph C. Phillips Jr. makes is hard to categorize." — NPR
“ ...very clearly 21st-century music [incorporates] a broad range of styles while being ultimately beholden to none.”
— Frank Oteri, New Music Box
“A hypnotic rhythmic undertow guides his music and is informed by influences from the world of literature, philosophy...”
— John Murph, The Root
“What lovely, graceful and heartfelt music Joe Phillips composes.  He already has something very special that is uniquely his own. His textures are unique and his compositions unfold naturally and patiently. [....] I might add that he's an absolutely beautiful conductor. I love to watch him.  And, this is just the beginning. Joe will do many great things—I have no doubt.” 
— Maria Schneider

The Grey Land

​"Mr. Phillips can be heard rendering these varied cultural signals into a heterogenous work of art — but one that has a coherence the world often lacks. And this, in the end, seems like his latest understanding of 'the digging of everything.' Sometimes that digging may involve appreciation; at other points, it is simply a process of documentation, or of profitably trying to sort one’s own complex feelings."
​— Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times, "In the Wake of Ferguson, a Style-Blurring Album"
“...it begins with the monochrome blocks of a chorale, ‘The People Get Tired of Dying’, and ends with the cry of a black mother grieving her dead child. In between, Phillips and 28 members of his Numinous ensemble deal with the sad, lonely iniquities of her life. It would be devastating live-streamed. As it is, the closely produced recording captures the claustrophobia of her oppression and the highly charged intensity of the words...”
​—Laurence Vittes, Gramophone, April 2021
Joseph C. Phillips Jr.’s The Grey Land is a stirring, stylistically varied mono-opera that draws on its composer’s reflections on being Black in contemporary America.
​— Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times "The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020"
"The Grey Land...[Joseph C Phillips Jr's] most ambitious, and possibly most important work yet."​
​— John Schaefer, New Sounds, "Top 10 of 2020" (#4)
“The Grey Land is rich with allusions to tragedy, hope, and resistance…With his stirring meditation on racial injustice, Phillips confronts a classical tradition that has often been used to ennoble its white subjects to the exclusion of others.”
​— Oussama Zahr, The New Yorker
"Phillips conveys the sorrow, agony, rage and sheer exhaustion of the struggle while at the same time radiating a shared strength, beauty, and determination. Soprano Rebecca L Hargrove and narrator Kenneth Browning embody all of these as mother and son, deftly aided by Phillips's own 28-piece Numinous ensemble in giving voice to a collective cry for justice that echoes through the years...the composer's 'mixed music' idiom lends sociopolitical thrust to a post-minimalism that suffuses the work with added poignancy in light of the historic neglect of Julius Eastman, his minimalist precursor."
— Steph Power, BBC Music Magazine​ (4 out of 5 stars)
"Shorn of the safety net of historical distance that enables us to shake our heads, weep, and then walk away from the tragedies of yore, The Grey Land plants us resolutely in the present. It's seeds...lie deep in the soil of American experience...
As much as the libretto addresses the core of the issue, it's Phillips's score that defines the pain as universal...his restless, churning, and strangely beautiful music forges a path straight to the heart."
— Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile ​(4 out of 5 stars)
"That the album arrives at yet another flashpoint in U.S. history elevates The Grey Land from a breakthrough piece to a necessary statement."— Steve Smith, Night After Night
"...the overall arc of [The Grey Land] is well-conceived and promises to be a stunning and complex multimedia portrait of Black America when it is able to be fully realized."
— Amanda Cook, I Care If You Listen,
​"Editor's Picks: 2020 Contemporary Classical Albums"
“By the time ‘Streets of Sighs’ [the last scene from The Grey Land] concludes I’m exhausted. Not only because of the…great examples of Black Liberation Music I have taken in, but the reflections I am forced to reckon with…and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t super emotional by the end of the listening…”
— Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn, The Wire Magazine
"As we’ve seen in the last year, there is something tremendously out of tune with the state of our humanity, and Phillips has made a bold effort at immersion therapy in [The Grey Land]: this hour of space pushes us with the brute, blunt force of a political statement and simultaneously delivers the shivers and sacred space of a requiem.”
--American Record Guide, July/August 2021
"Overall, The Grey Land depicts a dramatic and tragic story of modern Black America well, with glimmers of hope and Afrofuturism sprinkled about. The composition as a whole is brassy and triumphal; solemn and evocative; expressive and harmonious…The Grey Land not only sits in sorrow and unpacks injustice, but also provides a lens into what Blackness looks like without oppression and the constant threat of death." 
— Jasmine Ivanna Espy, I Care If You Listen,
"The Grey Land: Joseph C. Phillips Jr. Captures the Essence of Modern Black America"
“[The Grey Land], of course, draws attention to Phillips’ incredible music and the performances by Numinous and [Rebecca L] Hargrove, who are a perfect blend of precision and emotion. The opera is a dense work of ideas and emotion, and the accompanying liner notes help clarify references and reward multiple listenings. Overall, the album is highly recommended…”
— Grey McCandless, Black Grooves
"The Grey Land... is one man, with an extraordinary grasp of history and the present, attempting to make sense of the world in which he lives and expressing it a kaleidoscope of emotions and sound."
​— Rick Perdian, ​​Seen and Heard International
"...the sympathy and sincerity of Joe Phillips's haunting The Grey Land..."
—George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail, "Opera in Our New World"
"The Grey Land's tone is, variously angry, wistful, haunted, and hallucinogenic. It's an agonizing journey but, somehow one that holds out the promise of a better world." —Andrew Quint, The Absolute Sound (4.5 of 5 stars)
"[The Grey Land's] impact is considerable and does not evaporate once the basic statement has been made, for a creative structure has been married to a committed message."​—James Manheim, All Music
"This is Joe Phillips time. He’s a singular composer who uses beauty and suggestions of the pleasure of pop music to surreptitiously and incontrovertibly reveal the essential Africa-American roots underlying everything we love in American culture. Eight years in gestation, The Grey Land is a multimedia mono-drama... and is the story of one Black mother’s experiences making her way through American society across 'the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power.'"
​—George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail

Changing Same

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love 21st-Century Composers
— Seth Colter Walls, New York Times
#41
Top 50 Favorite Albums from 2015 (all genres)
— Seth Colter Walls
#10
Top 10 New Music Albums 2015
— George Grella, The Big City
#3
Top 30 Favorite Classical/Art Music Albums 2015
— George M. Wallace, A Fool in the Forest
"The tail end of August blessed us with a high-octane pack of new classical releases that are powerful enough to propel us beyond the last lazy days of summer and into a new season. Topping our list of the best classical albums this month is Changing Same, a new album from composer Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., and his ensemble, Numinous."
— Seth Colter Walls, Rhapsody
"More sympathetic, and really quite lovely and evocative, is Joe Phillips’s Changing Same (New Amsterdam). This is a subtle and remarkable work. Phillips has made music that places the style and meaning of rhythm and blues into the context of contemporary classical music. Stuff like that is usually embarrassing to hear, but Phillips makes it work, and makes it sound easy and natural. His bearing witness is by example—a black composer taking black popular music (with its own important history of political and social consciousness) and placing it, without comment, on an equal footing with the forms and structures of the classical tradition. It is no exaggeration to say this is on par with Mahler making symphonies with music his peers thought of as vulgar, and it is just as successful."
— George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail
"...one swooping mélange of sophisticated juxtapositions. This will never get old. The orchestral scores here are kinetic and full of surprises."
— Mike Greenblatt, Classicalite
"Check out @Numinousmusic's lovely, spacious, unique new album."
— Vijay Iyer
"...throughout a creative freshness that marks this music as occupying a world on its own..."
— Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review
"...compelling and conceptually thoughtful...very fine stuff"
— John Burdick, Chronogram
"This music has a rustic, dream-like quality and doesn't quite sound like any other jazz, rock or even new music ensemble."
— Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

The Loves of Pharaoh (BAM Next Wave Festival)

"[At BAM's Next Wave Festival] was The Loves of Pharaoh, a mostly restored silent film from Ernst Lubitsch, presented with original live music from Joseph C. Phillips Jr. and his ensemble, Numinous. It was the music that made it work…Phillips’s music flows smoothly and richly. While his previous work has a strong flavor of Minimalism, his language in this work is more Romantic and expressive…Phillips does two things I admire: He never mocks the picture, and he never limits the music to the obvious emotion of a scene...Phillips maintains a cooler, more sympathetic, and more humane voice."
— George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail
"Though I was thoroughly engrossed in Lubitsch's mise-en-scene I also found Phillips's score  [to The Loves of Pharaoh] to be totally riveting."  
 — Frank Oteri, NewMusicBox

Vipassana

“…[Vipassana] is certainly head music for the cerebral, but it’s a dandy listening date for people that really like their alternative stuff from left field. [....] Wild and worth it.”
— Midwest Record Review
"...Vipassana is flat-out gorgeous..."— Darcy James Argue
“Phillips' writing is brilliant, and the ensemble performs it with clarity and passion. Count me as a believer.”
— Ted Gioia
“Musically, this quartet of stylish and provocative pieces…  succeeds in being the sum of its parts and to illustrate his program, which is an unusual one: part symphonic, part spiritual exegesis…  Vipassana is never less than likeable, is sincere in intent, and is greatly enjoyable to listen to; Joseph C. Phillips Jr. is a young composer to watch.”
— All Music Guide

The Undisappeared, from Carols after a Plague album (The Crossing choir)

"The music of 'The Undisappeared' reflects the gentle spirit of the phenomenon, not its acoustic efflorescence. That feels right, because with its combination of cheering and loud mourning that custom well represented the soul of the pandemic era." 
​--​Jon Sobel, BlogCritics.org
“'The Undisappeared' by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. makes for a nice juxtaposition; Phillips’ music is more tonally centered, calm, and peaceful in its own way. The work...memorializes the days in the beginning of the pandemic..."
--​Clover Nahabedian, I Care If You Listen
"​Joseph C Phillips also sets his own words in 'The Undisappeared,' talking about the moment each evening during lockdown when people came out of their hiding to cheer essential workers. Phillips, by contrast, creates something that is haunting and melodic, a soprano solo line providing a striking melody whose fragments weave their way through the work."
​--Planet Hugill

Interviews


Stay Thristy Magazine two interviews--one with Joseph C Phillips Jr and another with
soprano Rebecca L Hargrove about The Grey Land  
​
"In the Wake of Ferguson, a Style-Blurring Album"
interview/feature with Seth Colter Walls for The New York Times
​
5 Questions
interview for I Care If You Listen & American Composers Forum

BBC Magazine
​"Meet the Composer" Feature Interview
​
Mikeypod
Podcast interview with Michael Harren
​
WRUU
Contemporary Classics
Interview with Dave Lake
​
Second Street Dreams
​Classical Music in Color
Podcast Interview with Judlyne Lilly Gibson

NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday 
interview with Rachel Martin (first aired, August 23rd, 2015)

"The Changing Same"
interview with composer/author Chris Becker (about Changing Same)
​
"Balancing Act" 
interview/feature on NewMusicBox

ClassicalTV 
interview/article (about The Loves of Pharaoh & 2012 BAM Next Wave Festival)

ClassicalTV 
interview (about Ecstatic Music Festival 2013)

The Glass 
interview (about The Loves of Pharaoh & 2012 BAM Next Wave Festival)

The Glass 
interview (about Changing Same & Ecstatic Music Festival 2013)

Sequenza21 
(about The Loves of Pharaoh & 2012 BAM Next Wave Festival)

"Classical Music's Latest Bloomer" 
(interview on The Root)

Features

March 3, 2023
New Sounds
Program #4589, Ambient Chamber Music

December 18, 2022
New Sounds
Program #4431, Three Musical Tales (encore)

​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
February 2021
BBC Magazine
​"Meet the Composer" Feature Interview & The Grey Land review
February 2021
Stereophile
January 25, 2021
​Mikepod Podcast interview
January 2021
The Wire Magazine (Issue #443)
January 11, 2021
New Sounds
Program #4446
Top 10 of 2020
#4
December 17, 2020
New York Times
​"The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020"
November 21, 2020
New York Times
"In the Wake of Ferguson, a Style-Blurring Album"
by Seth Colter Walls
November 23, 2020
I Care If You Listen
5 Questions
November 19, 2020
WNYC
​New Sounds
​#4431, Three Musical Tales
October 15, 2018
WNYC
New Sounds Gig Alert
Changing Same featured in Rhapsody's Classical Diversity: Today's Voices in Composition October playlist

"We still don't have complete gender equity or consistent racial diversity in our formal concert halls today, although things are improving. In recent months and years, we’ve seen a clutch of albums organized around works by artists from many backgrounds. For the latest examples, take two recent, thrilling releases from the New Amsterdam label: one from the composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, the other from composer Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., and his Numinous ensemble."

http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/classical-diversity-todays-voices-in-composition
Changing Same is #1 in Top 10 Classical albums for September 2015 from Rhapsody!

"The tail end of August blessed us with a high-octane pack of new classical releases that are powerful enough to propel us beyond the last lazy days of summer and into a new season. Topping our list of the best classical albums this month is Changing Same, a new album from composer Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., and his ensemble, Numinous."

http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/top-10-classical-albums-september-2015
"Unlimited," Gamelan, & Steve Reich
First aired: August 25, 2015
New Sounds
WNYC Radio
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