Leroy Burrill Phillips (November 9, 1907 – June 22, 1988)[1] was an American composer, teacher, and pianist.
Phillips's first important work was Selections from McGuffey's Reader, for orchestra, based on poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.[2] Immediately successful, the work established his reputation as a composer with a "consciously American style".
2 was premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. by the Paganini Quartet, with the composer present, and broadcast on live FM radio.
In the early 1960s he turned to free serial techniques, less sharply accented rhythms, and increasing fantasy.
[1] His students include Jack Beeson, William Flanagan, Kenneth Gaburo, Ben Johnston, H. Owen Reed, Daria Semegen, Mary McCarty Snow,[3] Steven Stucky, David Ward-Steinman, and Charles Whittenberg,[4] as well as Jerry Amaldev.