Education
- M.M., Piano, Louisiana State University, 1983
- B.M., Piano, Louisiana State University, 1981
Pianist Lee Phillips is lecturer in music in chamber and collaborative music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has been on the faculty since 2008 and was previously on the piano faculties of the University of the Ozarks and the University of Central Arkansas.
Phillips studied at Louisiana State University with Daniel Sher, and later with Panayis Lyras and Michael Gurt for doctoral work. He also studied in Paris with Eric Heidsieck and in London with John Ogden. Primary chamber music teachers include cellist Janos Starker and pianist György Sebök in the United States and violinists Yfrah Neaman and György Pauk in London.
Phillips has performed regularly on tour in the United States, South America, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Spain, China, Sweden, and Korea (touring with the Erato Ensemble).
He has given regular master courses in Cadiz, Granada, and Murcia in Spain, and master classes at the Guangzhou Conservatory in China and an international violin festival in Shanghai. He has been involved in many summer festivals, including the Roundtop Festival Institute in Texas, Sofia Music Weeks International Festival and Plovdiv International Chamber Music Festival in Bulgaria, and the Cheltenham Music Festival in England.
Phillips was a founding member, in 1992, of the Kapelle Trio, one of America’s finest chamber ensembles, with violinist Kevork Mardirossian and cellist Felice Farrell. The group was trio-in-residence at the University of Central Arkansas and founded the Strings and Piano Chamber Music Summer Festival in Heber Springs, Arkansas. In addition to numerous concert tours in the United States and abroad, the trio has an impressive discography including works of Rochberg, Brahms, Debussy, and Schoenfield.
He has been a collaborator for international violin competitions in Pamplona, Spain (Sarasate); the Czech Republic (Beethoven); Gorizia, Italy; and the Duo Sonata competition at the annual violin festival of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
He was recently pianist and guest judge of the national keyboard competition at the First International Exposition in Tsingdao, China.