Burrill Phillips
[Leroy] Burrill Phillips (b. November 9, 1907; d. June 22, 1988) was an American composer, pianist, and music educator. Phillips was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1907. In 1928, he enrolled in the Denver College of Music, where he studied composition with Edwin Stringham. During this time, he also worked as a staff pianist for a Denver radio station. On September 17, 1928, he married Alberta C. Mayfield, who would later write many of his librettos. In 1931, Phillips transferred to the Eastman School of Music, where he majored in composition under Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree in 1932 and the Master of Music degree in 1933.
Following completion of his studies, Phillips was appointed to the faculty of the Eastman School, where he taught theory and composition until 1949. Thereafter, Phillips served on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign until his retirement in 1964. He later held visiting professorships at Eastman (1965-66), the Juilliard School (1968-69), and Cornell University (1972-73). Phillips spent the 1960-61 academic year abroad as Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Barcelona. His students include Jan Bach, Jack Beeson, Herbert Bielawa, William Flanagan, Lee Hoiby, Ben Johnston, H. Owen Reed, Daria Semegen, Steven Stucky, David Ward-Steinman, and Rayburn Wright.
Phillips received two Guggenheim Fellowships (1942-43 and 1972-73) and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1944). He received numerous commissions, including ones from the League of Composers (1944), the Koussevitzky Foundation (1946), the Fromm Foundation (1956), and the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation (1958). His major works include four ballets; two operas (Don’t We All, 1947; The Unforgiven,1981); several orchestral compositions, including concertos for bassoon (Concert Piece, 1940), tenor saxophone (Yellowstone, Yates, and Yosemite, 1972), and a Triple Concerto for clarinet, viola, piano, and orchestra (1952); various choral works; four piano sonatas; two string quartets; and numerous instrumental compositions for chamber ensembles.
