Philip Mead [born 1947]

Philip Mead is a pianist who has been actively involved in contemporary music for many years. He has commissioned many new works and has worked closely with composers such as Stockhausen, Tippett, Steve Reich and Jonathan Harvey. He has recorded many CDs, of which Southern Lament – a CD of the works of Stephen Montague – was awarded the International Piano Award for best new music CD of 2006. He has performed with many orchestras, including the BBC Symphony at the Proms. He was Founder in 1988 of the triennial British Contemporary Piano Competition, is a past director of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, a visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and an honorary life member of the European Piano Teachers Association.

He is also the conductor of the St Augustine’s Chamber Choir, which gave the première of The Keys of Heaven by Peter Thompson and which presents numerous concerts in the Cambridge area. As a composer he studied with Lennox Berkeley at the Royal Academy of Music, London and has an MA in the performance and composition of electronic music from de Montfort University.

Several audio and video recordings of Philip Mead and his St Augustine’s Chamber Choir can be found here on the Fand site (and its associated YouTube channel). Visit the following pages to see and hear performances of:

Sir Arnold Bax: Nympholept [video]
Sir Arnold Bax arr. John Mitchell: Pensive Twilight [audio]
Philip Mead: Christmas Bells [audio]
Peter Thompson: Ballad [video]
Peter Thompson: Burlesque [audio]
Peter Thompson: The Keys of Heaven [video]
Peter Thompson: Rhapsodic Frollic from Suite no 8: ‘Nameless Days’ [video]
Peter Thompson: Soliloquy [video]
Peter Thompson: Toccata [video]

Several of the above items came from a lunchtime recital given by Philip in 2015, featuring the music of Bax and Thompson. You can view the whole concert on this site.

Further information about Philip Mead can be found on his Web site.

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