NOW & UPCOMING
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
Past
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.
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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.
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Excerpt of the Sorce/Lodge duo at Nief Norf Festival performing "Scission"
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February 14, 2020
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Highlights from the premiere performance at The Clarice on February 14, 2020
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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
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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 |
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September 11, 2015
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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.
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July 2015
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Podcast Interview with George Grella from The Brooklyn Rail
https://soundcloud.com/rail-tracks/bk-rail-tracks-2015-078 (interview is at the beginning) |
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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
