A resident of Maine since 1982, Philip Carlsen has drawn much inspiration from the people and landscapes of his adopted state. The Maine Arts Commission honored him with an Individual Artist Fellowship. Several of Maine’s premiere organizations have commissioned pieces from him, including the Portland Symphony, Bossov Ballet Theatre, and the Sebago-Long Lake Region Chamber Music Festival. He composed numerous pieces for his students and colleagues at the University of Maine at Farmington: orchestral and choral works for the college/community ensembles, of which several were based on texts by renowned Maine poet Wesley McNair; songs and incidental music for productions of Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and other plays by the local theater company; celebratory music for UMF presidential inaugurations; and five annual extravaganzas in Farmington for automobile orchestra. He has also written music for the Javanese gamelan at Bates College. Phil’s reputation extends beyond the borders of Maine. The National Symphony Orchestra, in connection with its American residency program, awarded him a commission to write a new chamber work expressing the spirit of the people of Maine. That piece, Maine Traveler’s Advisory, was premiered in 2000 at the Kennedy Center. Phil has had performances at New York’s Town Hall and the Summergarden Series of the Museum of Modern Art, as well as at national conferences of the College Music Society and the Society of Composers. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Charles Ives fellowship from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, a commission from the American Composers Alliance, and a residency at the MacDowell Colony. Carlsen was born in 1951 in Coulee Dam, Washington. He spent his early years in Spokane, but his family also lived for two years in Evanston, Illinois, and four in Storrs, Connecticut (where his dad taught at UConn), before settling in Seattle as Phil was entering eleventh grade. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Washington, pursued graduate work at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and eventually ended up in Maine, where he taught for 33 years at the University of Maine at Farmington. Following retirement in 2015, he moved to the Portland area with his wife, the poet Jeri Theriault. He directed the Portland Conservatory’s annual Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival for three years, from 2016 to 2018. Phil is also active as a cellist, playing baroque cello with the early music group St. Mary Schola.

Website: https://www.philcarlsen.com/