Paul Phillips

In this episode, I chat with Professor Paul Phillips. Professor Phillips is a conductor, composer, pianist, and author who serves as Professor of Music and Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies at Stanford University. He directs the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, and Stanford Summer Symphony, and has conducted over 80 orchestras, opera companies, and ballet troupes worldwide, including the San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. A champion of contemporary music, Professor Phillips has received 11 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming and has collaborated with major composers and artists such as Steve Reich and Itzhak Perlman. His diverse career also includes acclaimed publications on composer and novelist Anthony Burgess, including A Clockwork Counterpoint and The Devil Prefers Mozart (2024). Trained at Eastman, Columbia, and Cincinnati and mentored by Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Professor Phillips continues to bridge performance, scholarship, and composition in his global career as an innovative conductor and educator.