Administration & Faculty Composition and Theory
Composition and Theory Faculty
Phil Sims, Theory and Composition Faculty
Phil studied music at the undergraduate and graduate level at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He has held academic appointments to teach theory, musicianship, composition, and electronic music at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Rochester, Mercer University, and Emory University. His compositions have been performed or presented throughout the country and in Europe, in both academic and community venues, most recently at the Schwartz Center on the campus of Emory University, the Ferst Center at Georgia Tech, and the Atlanta Ballet’s Centre for Dance Education. In recent years, Phil’s creative work has mainly focused on the creation of albums and sound design scores using ProTools and a mix of acoustic and virtual instruments. His intellectual and academic essays have focused on theoretical and pedagogical issues ranging from integrated and experiential instruction to sociopolitical topics like musical rhetoric, the politics of beauty, modes of listening, the apparent impact of art as commodity, and the practice of aesthetic apartheid within academic departments and curricula.
Phil began lecturing in music theory 18 years ago at the Eastman School, at the age of 22; while at Eastman, he won both the School’s graduate student teaching award and the University of Rochester’s Edward Curtis Peck Award for excellence in undergraduate instruction. In addition to pursuing inspired, effective teaching from an academic platform, Phil has also collaborated in a variety of music and education projects with organizations like the Atlanta Ballet, FOCUS (Families of Children Under Stress), the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the American Composers Forum, the Atlanta Union Mission, the Atlanta Girls’ School, and the Montessori School at Emory, to name a few. Founding and Directing the Music Center represents both the culmination of his career to date and an exciting set of new opportunities for Phil to teach and create from a completely independent platform. It was also the fulfillment of a long held dream he shared with co-Founder and Director, Diana Orozco, and one of the ways Phil marked his 40th birthday
Bloomsday, Episodes 1-3 :: Phil Sims (2004)
Bloomsday was created summer of 2004 using freeProtools. The composition consists of an audio sequence developed from a single recorded sample of a static burst generated when a stereo plug was removed from a speaker. Premiere: Emory University's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, Fall 2004.
PhilSimsMusic.com :: composer web site