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  Numinous The Music of Joseph C. Phillips Jr.

News

About Joe
ABOUT NUMINOUS
PRESS

NOW & UPCOMING


January 21, 2021

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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


Past


January 11, 2021

New Sounds
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"
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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.
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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)

December 15, 2020

I Care If You Listen
​
 "Editor's Picks: 2020 Contemporary Classical Albums"
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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).

WRUU
Contemporary Classics
Interview with Dave Lake
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November 20, 2020

New York Times
"In the Wake of Ferguson, a Style-Blurring Album"
by Seth Colter Walls

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November 20, 2020


Numinous recording of my monoopera The Grey Land, order at Bandcamp
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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.
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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)

November 19, 2020

WNYC
​New Sounds
​#4431, Three Musical Tales

1619 opera cycle


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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!


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. 
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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

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.
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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"
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Indiegogo Fundraising Campaign to support finishing Numinous recording of my monoopera "The Grey Land"

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#/
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"

February 14, 2020

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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)

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

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!

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
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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

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
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(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

The Grey Land, a monoopera: teaser trailer from Numinous Music on Vimeo.


May 19, 2018

New Music Gathering panel
New Amsterdam Records @ 10 years Oral History Panel
Boston Conservatory at Berklee
​Boston, MA
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May 22, 2017

Premiere of "Climb" for the Fieldston School 7th grade Band
Fieldston School
3901 Fieldston Road
Bronx, NY
7:30 pm
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March 7, 2018

Discussing The Grey Land with the American Composers Forum

December 2016


Article for Van Magazine

Flattened Multiplicities: On Musical Genre and Personal Identity


Jerome Foundation Fund for New Music
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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
Lara premiering "Never Has Been Yet" at Mondavi Center
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

February 2016

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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

Top 50 Favorite Albums from 2015 (all genres)
— Seth Colter Walls

Changing Same
Top 10 New Music albums 2015
— George Grella, The Big City

Changing Same discussed in Diary of a Mad Composer
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

November 27-December 13, 2015

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The Bellagio Foundation Has Been Known To Make Me Cry

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

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Changing Same featured in Rhapsody's Classical Diversity: Today's Voices in Composition October playlist



October 16, 2015

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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


September 2015

Changing Same is #1
in Top 10 Classical albums for September 2015 from Rhapsody!
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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
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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

Changing Same release worldwide on
New Amsterdam Records
.


August 25, 2015

"Unlimited", Gamelan, & Steve Reich

New Sounds
WNYC

August 23, 2015

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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)
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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
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About Joe
ABOUT NUMINOUS
PRESS
Thanks and credit to all the original photos on this website to: David Andrako, Concrete Temple Theatre, Marcy Begian, Ed Lefkowicz, Donald Martinez, Kimberly McCollum, Geoff Ogle, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Daniel Wolf-courtesy of Roulette, Andrew Robertson, Viscena Photography, Jennifer Wohrle, Carolyn Wolf. The Numinous Changing Same album design artwork by DM Stith. The Numinous The Grey Land album design and artwork by Brock Lefferts. Contact for photo credit and information on specific images.