Philip Cashian

'His music courses with energy, driven along on high-octane rhythmic invention: itʼs constantly diverting, constantly surprisingʼ - The Guardian

Philip Cashian was born in Manchester in 1963. His fast paced style of music has been described as 'an uncompromising reflection of the modern worldʼ and is regularly performed and broadcast worldwide.

Cashian has collaborated and worked with many leading musicians, ensembles and orchestras. Performances include the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Riga Sinfonietta, Ensemble Profil (Romania), the Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Sinfonietta, Ergon Ensemble (Athens), Festival de Mùsica de Alicante, Aspen Music Festival, Ojai Festival (California), Musikmonat (Basle), Moscow Autumn Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the BBC Proms as well as recent performances in Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Holland, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and China. In March 2013 he was Composer in Residence at Oberlin Conservatoire where his Concerto for cello and strings received it's premiere. In 2008 the London Sinfonietta commissioned Cashian to write The Opening of the House for their inaugural concert at Kings Place and later in the same year his first opera, The Cumnor Affair was premiered by Tête à Tête Opera Company at the Riverside Studios, London.

Recent commissions include Firewheel for Dark Inventions, Strix for the Britten Sinfonia Academy, the worldʼs turning for the Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), The Thin Night Darkens for Xufei Yang , The Language of Birds for Tabea Debus and Scenes from the Life of Viscount Medardo for Richard Watkins. His String Quartet No.2 was premiered in the 2017 St Magnus International Festival by the Gildas Quartet and later this year Psappha will give the premiere of Leonora Pictures in Manchester. His second piano concerto, The Book of Ingenious Devices, for Huw Watkins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra will be premiered in the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival conducted by Oliver Knussen.

Cashian has also written extensively for young and amateur musicians: to date he has written six pieces for the ABRSMʼs Spectrum series as well as large scale works for Contemporary Music for All and the Centre for Young Musicians. He is also a sought after teacher and has been Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music since 2007. Between 2010 and 2013 he was invited by the British Council to curate a series of concerts of contemporary British music in Bucharest during the course of which works by over sixty living British composers were performed.

Recordings of his music are available on the NMC record label including two portrait discs, Dark Inventions and The House of Night.