Philip Cashian’s fast-paced style of music has been described as ‘an uncompromising reflection of the modern world’
He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Oliver Knussen and Simon Bainbridge and in 1990 was the Benjamin Britten fellow at Tanglewood where he studied with Lukas Foss.
He 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, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Riga Sinfonietta, Ensemble Profil, Arctic Philharmonic, the Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Sinfonietta, Ergon Ensemble (Athens), Festival de Mùsica de Alicante, Bergen Festival, 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 2008 the London Sinfonietta commissioned him 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 his String Quartet No.2, for the Gildas Quartet, premiered in the St Magnus International Festival and Leonora Pictures for Psappha, who gave the first performance in Manchester followed by three further performances in New York, Oberlin and Aspen. His second piano concerto, The Book of Ingenious Devices, premiered by Huw Watkins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen in the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival was described in The Times as ‘mesmerising music’. In the 2019 Beijing Modern Music Festival the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra gave the premiere of his most recent orchestral work, Fanfaronades.
To date he has also written six pieces for the ABRSM’s Spectrum series as well as large scale works for Contemporary Music for All and the Centre for Young Musicians.
He is a highly sought-after teacher, having given masterclasses all over the world, and has been Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music since 2007.
He is published by Wise Music and Composers Edition. Recordings of his music are available on the NMC label including the two portrait discs The House of Night and Dark Inventions.