Young Artist winner, violin 1973
Major winner, violin 1977
Todd Phillips made his solo debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at the age of 13 and has appeared with many orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan since then, including the Brandenburg Ensemble, the Jacksonville and Honolulu symphonies, the Camerata Salzburg, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1982 with the New York String Orchestra and conductor Alexander Schneider.
Return engagements at Carnegie Hall soon followed as well as solo performances in Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Boston’s Symphony Hall and the vFrankfurt Opera House.
Phillips is a founding member of the highly acclaimed Orion String Quartet which has been the quartet-in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mannes College of Music, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The Quartet’s television appearances have included PBS’ “Live from Lincoln Center,” three performances on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” and A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts.” Their recordings of the complete Beethoven quartets have received acclaim from critics and audiences alike.
Phillips’ experience as a frequent leader of the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has led to engagements as conductor/leader with the Camerata Nordica of Sweden, The New World Symphony, Risor Chamber Orchestra in Norway, The Brandenburg Ensemble, the Tapiola Sinfonietta of Finland, and the Mannes Sinfonietta in New York City.
Phillips serves on the violin faculties of the Mannes College The New School for Music, the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Manhattan School of Music, and Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Phillips began studying the violin at the age of four with his father, Eugene Phillips, a composer and former violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and later studied with Sally Thomas at the Juilliard School and with SàndorVègh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He also studied piano with his mother, Natalie Phillips, a professor of piano at the University of Pittsburgh.
