A classically trained composer with an ongoing fascination for popular culture, Philip Thompson composes chamber music, orchestral works, opera, film, and electroacoustic music. His compositions reflect influences as diverse as Messiaen, Bill Evans, djembe drumming, prog rock, and the baroque doctrine of affections, all blended into a very personal style.

His most recent composition, Kecow hit tamen, was premiered by IonSound Project in November of 2011 at University of Pittsburgh’s Bellefield Hall Auditorium. The new piece is a multi-media collaboration with artist Ryan Day and was one of the first works presented as part of IonSound’s “Commissions for the Future” initiative to support Pittsburgh-based composers.

Dust: A Lenten Journey, was commissioned by Light of Christ Church in Kenosha Wisconsin. A setting of eight poems by Rebecca Engstrom, Dust is scored for mezzo soprano, string quartet, and live electronics. Thompson led the premiere of Dust at the Kemper Center Chapel in Kenosha on March 13, 2011.

In June of 2010, scenes from Thompson’s one-act professional wrestling opera, The Final Battle for Love, were premiered at the Virginia Arts Festival in conjunction with the John Duffy Composers Institute. Other recent performances include violinist Roger Zahab and pianist Robert Frankenberry’s presentation of Emergence at Churchill College, Cambridge (August 2010), and the premiere of Percussion Concerto (Remixed) by IonSound Project (November 2009).

Thompson composed and produced the score for Will Zavala’s 2009 documentary Virgil Cantini: The Artist in Public, a film commissioned by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts with support from the Heinz Endowments. His composition Trouble, has received multiple performances by IonSound Project (who premiered the work in 2008 and performed it subsequently in 2009 with choreography by KnotDance), by Alia Musica Pittsburgh, and as part of a symposium at Trinity Christian College titled The Psalms, The Arts, and Worship.

During the summer of 2010, Thompson co-directed Bridging Musicology and Composition: The Global Significance of Bartok’s Method, a symposium and festival presented by the Centre for Intercultural Musicology at Churchill College, Cambridge. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society and publishes Pittsburgh New Music Net, a widely read blog about contemporary music in Pittsburgh.

Thompson was born in Baltimore and grew up in Forest Hill, Maryland. He received his early musical training through Harford County’s excellent public education system and Peabody Conservatory’s preparatory school studying trombone and composition. Thompson completed his undergraduate work at Oberlin Conservatory and received his MA and PhD in composition and theory from the University of Pittsburgh. He has served as adjunct faculty at Seton Hill University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Chatham University teaching courses in music theory, appreciation, and technology. He lives in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood with is wife and two children.