Composer • Pianist • Singer
Award winning composer, Philip Seward, has worked a lot with vocal music both as performer and composer. His musicals, Hans Brinker, Nobody Likes Retsina, Sincerely Yours, Juan Peron’s Hand, and Shades have all had Chicago productions and revivals in other cities. Hans Brinker received several Jeff Citations and an After Dark Award. Les Dames á trois...et piano was a finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award and premiered in the Stages Festival at Theatre Building Chicago with singers Natalie Arduino, Amy Becker and Patrice Boyd for whom it was written. One-acts from the trilogy have been seen in several Chicago venues, Dallas, New York City, and Edinburgh, Scotland. High Fidelity was produced both in the Chicago Humanities Festival and in Merkin Hall in New York City. Spreading The News was commissioned and performed by North Park University. Current works in progress include The Rose Prologues, a collection of short operas, including The Troubador (titled Nimue at the time), which premiered in Scotland, and The Painter, which imagines a portrait sitting between American painter John Singer Sargent and Boston patroness of the arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Mr. Seward has also composed several art song folios based on texts by American poets and his own texts. His choral works include commissions for Mostly Music, Bella Voce,the Lira Ensemble of Chicago, and St. James Presbyterian Church. His instrumental works include incidental music for the North American premiere of Mileva Einstein at Oakton College; Dance Suite from the Prince & the Pauper by C5; and Hopewell Community commissioned and performed by CUBE, Chicago’s urban new music ensemble.
Mr. Seward has composed three operas for the young: Stone Soup, A Noteworthy Tale and African Stories commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago. He wrote Blessing for the Lira Ensemble of Chicago to celebrate the 25th papal anniversary which premiered on Classical Radio WFMT in live broadcast and Sonnet (on a Shakespearean text) for orchestra and women’s chorus, which premiered in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center. He created a musical memorial on the text of Psalm 8 which was commissioned by the Lyric Opera Chapters Executive Board in memory of former Artistic Director, Ardis Krainik. His commission for Hans Brinker came from New Tuners Theatre in conjunction with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.
As an active performer, Mr. Seward lists among favorite shows he has sung Die Fledermaus, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, South Pacific, The King and I, Cinderella, The Beggar’s Opera, A Chorus of Disapproval, The American Clock, and Frank McCourt’s The Irish...and how they got that way.
Mr. Seward has played his own works as well as featuring American composers of piano music in Millennium Park in Chicago and other venues in the United States and in Europe. He is a Senior Lecturer at Columbia College Chicago, heads the Music Lab at writingmusicaltheatre.com in conjunction with the Academy for New Music Theatre in Los Angeles, and serves as music director at St. James Presbyterian Church in Chicago.