I CARE IF YOU LISTEN: 5 Questions to Joseph C. Phillips Jr. (Numinous founder & composer)
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN: 5 Questions to Joseph C. Phillips Jr. (Numinous founder & composer)
BY GREGG NAHABEDIAN
“Joseph C. Phillips Jr. is a composer who defines his own work as ‘mixed music,’ a style that arranges a myriad of elements from different influences into a wholly unique product, not necessarily bound by the limits of traditional notation. Phillips founded the Numinous Ensemble in 2000, which boasts a flexible instrumentation of up to 30 players and has performed at venues such as Brooklyn Academy of Music and Le Poisson Rouge, while releasing recordings on New Amsterdam Records and innova Recordings. The Grey Land, Phillips’ newest opera released on New Amsterdam, is ‘a story of a Black mother trying to survive the reality in this land that doesn’t fully see her continued hope.’ Numinous also just announced the first iteration of The Numinous Initiative, a project to perform and record the music of six emerging Black composers, and they are accepting applications through December 20, 2020.”