STACEY PHILIPPS
Composer
 I like to collaborate and communicate |  I like telling stories with the complexity, nuance, and metaphor of music |  I like to think about what intrigues and entices performers and audiences |  I like to gather information, brainstorm, let ideas percolate, and receive and give feedback |  I like to explore the grey areas of life, where questions are plentiful and answers are questionable |  I like poetry, essays, news, fairy tales, personal anecdotes, courtroom drama, biographies, declarations, accusations, debates, justice, daily minutiae, anniversaries, adventures, mathematical schemes, conflict, resolution, suspension, animation, translation, truth, lies, observations, hypotheses, discoveries, and pure conjecture (and the Oxford comma) |
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 I like lyricism, breath, blending, and the magic of phrasing |  I like dissonance, intensity, and contrast |  I like rhythmic expectation, change, and trickiness |  I like messing things up and fixing them up again (or not) |  (When things are really messed up, I also like baking, because I know that's always going to turn out well) |  I like how overtones can give goosebumps |
 I love the infinite spectrum of colors and timbres of the human voice and acoustic instruments |  I love beauty, surprise, humor, poignancy, silliness, spectacle, pathos, banter, curiosity, and deeply felt emotions |  I love finding out if what I thought and wrote and described is what you saw and understood and performed and made your own |  I love to make things and watch the metamorphosis from notion to idea to notation to rehearsal to concert |  I love the ephemeral thrill of live performance right here, right now, and never again |  I love the chance for magic and connection at every concert |
 Let's make some music |
About
Stacey Philipps writes music to share the thrill of creation, collaboration, and performance. An early- and new-music devotee, Philipps is a multi-instrumentalist and lifelong singer currently in the alto section of the Oregon Repertory Singers, as well as the Composer-in-Residence for the Oregon Repertory Singers Youth Choir. From the sounds of the mountain dulcimer, drum set, ukulele, piano, and banjo in her studio to the wish list of harpsichord, viola da gamba, and crotales, Philipps also draws inspiration from mythology, documentaries, fairy tales, current events, personal narratives, and poetry, along with modal harmonies, folk songs, hymns, shape note music, and the melodic and rhythmic elements of the world around her. Her music for choirs, chamber ensembles, soloists, and orchestras has been performed across the country, and she holds degrees in composition from Portland State University and in philosophy from St. John’s College, Santa Fe. A finalist for the American Choral Directors Association Genesis Prize, Honorable Mention recipient of Chicago A Cappella's HerVoice competition, and third place winner of the American Prize Short Choral Division, Philipps is also a member of the American Composers Forum, the American Choral Directors Association, and ASCAP, as well as the proprietor of Sirensong Publishing, the primary distributor of her work.
Press
Matthew Neil Andrews for Oregon Arts Watch on Sosira, respira
Matthew Neil Andrews for Oregon Arts Watch on Witch Trial
Bruce and Daryl Browne for Oregon Arts Watch on Sudden Light
Brett Campbell for Oregon Arts Watch
Matthew Neil Andrews for Oregon Arts Watch
Brett Campbell for Willamette Week
Upcoming Events
Now!
GATHERING ROUNDS AVAILABLE!
52 Rounds and Canons for Choirs Set to Poetry and Prose by Women
It's here! The brand-new book of Gathering Rounds is a vibrant, engaging collection offering a round or canon for each week of the year featuring poetry and prose by women – some famous, some infamous, some longtime favorites, some newly discovered, all captivating – set to original music by Stacey Philipps.
Bound in a handy 6" x 9" spiral-bound book, these rounds and canons are welcoming, encouraging, flexible, musically and textually meaningful miniatures to enjoy with anywhere from a few people around a campfire to a large choir in a traditional performance space. Each song is enriched with brief program notes and an introductory biography of the poet or writer.
Gathering Rounds are great for choral warmups, icebreakers, sight-reading, processionals, recessionals, transitions, encores, sing-alongs, and just for fun. Written for two to six voices or groups for a WIDE variety of skill levels, ranges, and keys, some Gathering Rounds are easy enough for children and beginning singers, some are challenging for expert choristers, and most are in between.
Order your copy of Gathering Rounds now! Discounts for a six-pack and for a classroom- or ensemble-sized box of 30.
November
10 & 11
2022
CHOR LEONI IN CONCERT
November 10, 7:30 pm
November 11, 2:00 and 5:00 pm
St. Andrew's Wesley United Church,1022 Nelson Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
Chor Leoni presents a moving, meaningful concert annually on Canada's Remembrance Day, and this year, I'm honored to have my piece "So Close" included on the program. Originally written for SSATB and entitled Close Distancing, the song of connections reached for, cherished, and lost takes on a literally deeper meaning in the low, resonant voices of Chor Leoni, Vancouver, British Columbia's premier men's chorus and in the context of the universal experience of loss and remembrance embraced in this concert. This new TTTBB arrangement was commissioned by Artistic Director, Erick Lichte, and will be available next spring after the exclusive commissioning window ends.
December
1
2022
RESONANCE ENSEMBLE ON-DEMAND CONCERT
Starting December 1, 7:00 pm Pacific
"We Dissent," a concert focusing on reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, including my rather hair-raising song Witch Trial. The live concert performance of this piece was the best I've ever heard. Details will roll out soon here, and the premiere viewing session will be available here beginning December 1 at 7 pm PST.
December
9, 10, 11, & 13
2022
EMPIRE CITY MEN'S CHORUS IN CONCERT
December 9, 8 pm
First Unitarian Congregational Society, 119 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, New York
December 10, 8 pm
Church of the Ascension, 127 Kent Street, Brooklyn, New York
December 11, 5 pm and December 13, 7 pm
Church of the Holy Apostles, 296 9th Avenue, New York, New York
New York has multiple opportunities to hear the premiere of the TTBB version of Hidden in the grey, bending sky, commissioned by artistic director and my inspiring colleague, Vince Peterson. Set to the subtle, quiet poetry of Leone Kelley, choirs love performing this piece that includes a flexible, simple, and effective section of aleatory that puts the listener right in the middle of gently swirling snowflakes.
December
11
2022
ADELPHI CHORALE IN CONCERT
December 11, 4:00 pm Eastern
Adelphi College Performing Arts Center Concert Hall
Garden City, New York
Adelphi Chorale will also perform Hidden in the grey, bending sky at their annual winter concert. I'll repeat here that choirs love to sing this piece, especially the approachable and immersive aleatoric section of snowflakes.
December
2022
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE CHOIR IN CONCERT
Performance and livestream details coming soon
Lessons and Carols Service
Middlebury, Vermont
Middlebury College Choir will also be performing my evocative snowy song Hidden in the grey, bending sky (SATB) as part of their annual Lessons and Carols performance at the college. Set to the subtle, quiet poetry of Leone Kelley, choirs love performing this piece that includes a flexible, simple, and effective section of aleatory that puts the listener right in the middle of swirling snowflakes.
Now!
ALBUM RELEASED!
Everywhere you get music!
Oregon Repertory Singers' album Shadow on the Stars celebrates music of Morten Lauridson and composers from the Pacific Northwest, including me and some of my favorite colleagues. The album features live performances of Lauridsen's Madrigali – my absolute favorite pieces of his – and Sure on This Shining Night, along with stellar studio recordings of music by Joan Szymko, John Muehleisen, Giselle Wyers, and Steven Goodwin and Naomi LaViolette.
October
1 & 2
2022
RESONANCE ENSEMBLE IN CONCERT
October 1, 7:30 pm
October 2, 3:00 pm (I'll be there!)
Alberta House, 5131 NE 23rd Avenue
Portland, Oregon
I'm a longtime fan of Kathy FitzGibbon and her incredible work with Resonance Ensemble. They're kicking off a moving season with their program We Dissent, a concert focusing on reproductive justice and bodily autonomy. My piece Witch Trial for SSAA a cappella is part of this powerful program, and I'll be part of a post-concert panel discussing the music and its text, which is based on testimony from the Salem Witch Trials.
Past Events
May
21
2022
OPUS 7 IN CONCERT
University Congregational Church
4515 - 16th Ave NE, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Opus 7 performed my song Love Tender Breathing Fragrant for SATBB at their spring concert featuring music by Northwest composers. This piece explores a small, potent text by J.D. Fendell in musing on love: its myopic nature, its intensity, its fragility, its capriciousness, and its evanescence.
March
19
2022
MPLS IN CONCERT
Wellstone Center
St. Paul, Minnesota
MPLS (imPulse) premiered the SSATB version of my song In the Moment at their spring concert presenting vocal works with texts by children. The lyrics for this piece are from a poem by seven-year-old Hilda Conkling (as written down by her mother, poet Grace Conkling) and call to mind the focused, imaginative world of a child admiring a butterfly. Written during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918-1919, the text is a powerful reminder to stay in the moment when the world is overwhelming. Also available as a solo art song for high voice with very simple piano accompaniment here.
Report a Performance
Are you or your ensemble performing a piece I wrote? Fantastic – thank you! Please send me a program from your concert and any details I can help publicize.
Music with Oregon Repertory Singers
Livestreamed concert and conversation with
Composer Stacey Philipps featuring
performances by Oregon Repertory Singers
(begins at 8:31)
Sheet music for songs featured in the livestreamed concert
Contact
Question? Comment? Request? Inquiry? Send me an email.
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