Philip Edwards MMus GRSM
Philip Edwards studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Alan Hacker. Since then he has covered virtually the whole spectrum of professional music making. He has worked with symphony and chamber orchestras such as the Wren Orchestra, Langham Chamber Orchestra, BBC Radio Orchestra, Academy of the BBC and Sinfonia 21.
A firm advocate of British contemporary music, he has been involved in many first performances as a soloist and with such groups as the Park Lane Music Players, Music Projects/London, Circle, Gemini, The Composers’ Ensemble, Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust and the Orpheus Ensemble. Composers whose solo works he has premiered include Michael Finnissy, Richard Rodney Bennett, Gary Carpenter, George Nicholson, and Anthony Gilbert.
He made his London recital debut in 1978 at the Purcell Room under the auspices of the Park Lane Group in their annual series, Young Artists and Twentieth Century Music, accompanied by the pianist David Elwin with whom he has maintained a working partnership.
He was a member of the trio, Triple Echo, which won two prizes at the Gaudeamus contemporary music competition in Rotterdam in 1982. After making his first solo appearance on Radio 4 at the age of fourteen, he has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Dutch, French and Greek radio, as well as appearing on BBC 2, Channel 4, and German television. In November 1996, he appeared as soloist in a performance of Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and again at the 1998 Brighton festival.
His interest in music theatre led to his following a slightly more divergent career as a musician/actor, touring extensively in Britain and abroad with TNT theatre co-operative, the Natural Theatre Company of Bath, and Communicado theatre company of Edinburgh.
His international status as a performer has been enhanced by concerts at the Vienna festival, and by his participation in a staged version of Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale in Stuttgart and at the new concert hall in Athens. With the Greek-influenced ensemble, Polyphiloi, he has given concerts at the University of Athens, at Zakinthos, and in Cyprus (1998).
Recent appearances as a soloist with orchestra have been in December 2007 (Weber Concertino), and December 2009 (Rossini Introduction, Theme and Variations). In 2010 he participated in a revival concert of Triple Echo at Sheffield University to celebrate Geoge Nicholson’s 60th birthday.
He is a founding member of Ensemble Ciel Bleu, which specialises in bringing contemporary French music to British audiences. The ensemble gave the first British performance of veteran French composer Gilbert Amy's Variations at the Warehouse, Theed Street, London in 2004. Their most recent performance was at the new Birley Centre in Eastbourne in July 2014, where they featured works by two Brighton based composers, Peter Copley and Barry Mills.
