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

"Phillips, a composer who confidently fuses elements drawn from contemporary classical music, jazz, funk, and R. &. B., leads Numinous, his bespoke ensemble, in the premiere of The Grey Land." — Steve Smith, The New Yorker
"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."— The Brooklyn Rail
"For The Grey Land, Phillips hopes to address some deeper sociopolitical ideas. Social inequity is being discussed in the mainstream more and more frequently..." 
— Michael J. Cyrs, American Composers Forum

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

Interviews

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

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