Blackburn, Philip (1962-) | University of Illinois Archives

Philip Blackburn (1962- ) is a composer and music scholar. Blackburn was born in Cambridge, UK. He earned his bachelors in choral music from Clare College, University of Cambridge in 1985. Following this he studied at the University of Iowa, earning a masters degree while studying with Kenneth Gaburo in 1987. Following this, he earned a second masters degree in music at the University of Cambridge in 1989. In that same year he earned his PhD from the University of Iowa. In 1995, he published Enclosures Three: Harry Partch, which won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.

From 1991 to 2020, he worked at the American Composers Forum, running the Innova Recordings label. In 2020, he became the president of the Neuma Records label. Blackburn specializes in environmental sounds, composing works that examine natural and urban soundscapes.