Philip Mead

Philip Mead studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and was an international prize win­ner in contemporary music. He has since performed at many festivals in Britain and overseas and has recorded for many radio stations. He had his own series on BBC Radio 3 exploring some hid­den pathways in piano music.

He has been actively involved in contemporary music for many years and has given some impor­tant premieres. He gave the first London performance of the later Stockhausen Piano pieces, works by George Crumb, and Messiaen’s monumental series of piano pieces called Catalogue d’oiseaux. In 2004 he gave the first British performance of Henry Cowell’s Piano Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Television after having performed it at the Lincoln Centre, New York with the American Symphony Orchestra in the Bard Festival. He has been at the forefront of developing a repertoire for electronics and piano, working with such composers as Jonathan Harvey, Denis Smalley, Javier Alvarez and Horacio Vaggione and has toured them extensively. Tombeau de Messiaen by Jonathan Harvey has now become a con­temporary classic and is performed by many pianists round the world. His CD of the works of Stephen Montague called Southern Lament was awarded the International Piano Award for best contemporary CD of 2006.

Since 1997 he became very interested in the possibilities of expanding the repertoire for brass and piano and has commissioned new works by composers such as Diana Burrell and Martin Ellerby, many of which are available on disc.

As part of his commitment to contemporary music in 1988 he founded the British Contemporary Piano Competition held every 3 years until 2014. He also founded a contemporary piano depart­ment at the London College of Music which dealt exclusively with 20th century/contemporary music. He has organised festivals of the works of George Crumb (1997) and William Bolcom (1998) in London, and has organised 6 complete performances of Bartok’s Mikrokosmos most no­tably in 2014 with 140 pianists from around England each playing one movement which raised £3500 for charity.

He has been awarded honorary degrees by the London College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, and life membership of the European Piano Teachers Association for services to con­temporary music. He conducts and directs the St Augustine’s Singers which have performed works by Edward Cowie, and the St Augustine’s brass.

Philip now lives in Cambridge, England, is a visiting professor of the University of Hertfordshire and teaches privately in his own studio.